By Sean Talbot
In front of a big crowd at Kings Park for the annual Life Members & Past Players Day, the Upwey FTG Tigers secured a thrilling walk off win against the Doncaster Dragons to improve to 2-0 on the season on the back of two late inning comebacks to start the new season.
On the back of a terrific start from ace Jarrod Turner (7IP, 8H, 2R, 1ER, 0BB, 5SO) and a scoreless relief appearance from club coach Donavon Hendricks (2IP, 0H, 0R), the Tigers stuck with the Dragons all game before capitalising on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 9th to secure a walk-off win.
Doncaster struck first in the top of the 1st after Brendan McDonald laced the third pitch of the game to right field for a double, advanced on an infield single and scored on a base hit by Dragons cleanup hitter Jean Alvarado before Turner recorded a strike out and induced an infield flyball to end the inning. Looking to answer back in their half of the 1st, the Tigers were unfortunately unable to capitalise on leadoff hitter Peter Schroeders HBP as Team Australia member Dan McGrath recorded a pair of strikeouts and an infield fly.
As Turner and McGrath traded zeroes through the second and third innings, the Dragons doubled their lead in the top of the 4th inning as Rolando Curiel and Luke Utting both singled before Derek Medlin grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, during which Curiel scampered home to score. McGrath worked a scoreless bottom half of the inning to leave the score at 2-0, ending his day after four innings.
Turner again went 1-2-3 through Doncaster in the top of the 5th before Dragons import Matt Josselyn took the mound as he looked to keep the Tigers off the board. Jayden Christie-Dossiter worked a four pitch, one-out walk before stealing second base and coming around to score on a Doncaster error off the bat of Schroeders to put the Tigers on the board and make the score 2-1, before Josselyn recorded a pair of strikeouts to end the frame.
The Dragons were again held in check by Turner in the 6th as he sat them down in order, and Josselyn worked around a leadoff single from Josh Hendricks to send the game to the 7th. In his final inning of work, Turner ensured a leadoff Utting single accounted for nought as a caught stealing, a fly ball and a ground ball ended the inning and his day. Not to be outdone, Josselyn matched his counterpart with a 1-2-3 inning to send the game to the 8th.
With Donavon Hendricks taking the ball in the top of the 8th, the Dragons were sat down in order after a fly ball and two ground balls. Upwey tied the game in the bottom half of the inning, as Harvey Chinn singled and Jordan Elliott singled before Josh Hendricks sacrificed his out to advance both runners, allowing Flynn Morrison to lift a sac fly to score Chinn and tie the game at 2-2 before a groundball ended the inning, heading to the 9th deadlocked 2-2.
Despite a leadoff baserunner, the Dragons couldn’t capitalise as Hendricks induced a sacrifice bunt and two flyballs to send the game to the bottom of the 9th still tied 2-2. Brian Chen took the ball for Doncaster, however Hendricks, D singled, advanced to second on Nick Rice’s sac bunt, advanced to third on Christie-Dossiter’s groundball before coming home to score on a wild pitch to win the game for Upwey 3-2.
Looking to run their record to 2-0, the Reserves received a terrific start from Sean Meldrum (4.2IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 9SO) and three hits from call-up Sam Griffiths to lead the charge en-route to a 9-5 win over the Dragons.
Despite being jumped at the off courtesy of a leadoff walk and a double to drive in the game’s first run, Meldrum quickly steadied, recording a pair of flyballs and a strikeout to leave a runner stranded in scoring position. Looking to answer back in kind against Dragons starter Aimon Dowling, the Tigers got a one-out walk from Ash Geary-Smith and a two-out single from clean-up hitter Matt Cameron, however they were unable to push either runner across the plate for a score. Meldrum settled into his work in the second inning, working around a pair of singles to record a zero against the visitors, with Dowling matching him to send the game to the third inning still 1-0 to the Dragons.
Breezing through the third inning, Meldrum put his hitters right back to hit where they jumped on Dowling, with a Shaun Irvine walk being followed by hits to Michael Oxworth, Stuart Milz and Griffiths to force three Tiger runs across the plate to give the home side a 3-1 lead going into the fourth. Despite a leadoff double from Dowling, Meldrum again applied the screws, recording two strikeouts and a line drive out to strand Dowling and keep the score at 3-1, putting the Tigers back on offense where they put the sword to Dowling and put the game out of reach. Irvine reached second on a drop third strike and moved to third on a wild pitch, Geary-Smith walked then stole second before Oxworth was drilled by a pitch, Cameron lifted a sacrifice fly, Geary-Smith stole home and Griffiths doubled to score another three and give the home side a 6-1 lead, ending Dowling’s day.
Meldrum again made quick work of the Dragons hitters in the 5th before the Tigers plated another three in the bottom half of the inning on the back of singles from Mark Jones and Daniel Williams, coupled with RBI groundouts to Irvine, Oxworth and Geary-Smith scoring on a wild pitch after reaching on an error, giving the Tigers an unassailable 9-1 lead. Taking the ball for the first time this season, Pat Gawith was tasked with closing the door, and although he ran into a spot of trouble on the back of three base hits, a walk and a couple of Tiger errors that saw four runs cross the plate, the righty steadied and recorded a pair of flyballs and a strikeout to give the Tigers a hard fought 9-5 win.
The Thirds hosted archrival Blackburn and put on a strong offensive showing, running away with the game and out winners 11-2 at Kings Park. Scoring in the first, fourth, fifth and sixth innings, the team led all day and capitalised on 10 walks, three HBP’s and four stolen bases to make their five base hits really count when they needed to. Russell Jeffery (3 walks, 3 runs, 1 stolen base), Steve Williams (2 walks, 2 runs, 2 RBI, 1 stolen base) and coach Tarquin Booth (1 hit, 2 runs, 3 RBI) were the pick of the hitters for the Tigers, while Steve Johnson and Tyler Kilby shared mound duties.
The Fourths were not as lucky in their game against the Orioles, surrendering five runs in the top of the 2nd inning in what turned out to be the difference in the eventual 6-4 result. Despite aggressive base running and hits up and down the order, it unfortunately was not enough as the Orioles stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the last inning to snuff out any chance of some Tiger walk-off magic.
Travelling to Bicentennial Park to take on the home side Bonbeach Blue Jays, the Fifths and Sixths were unfortunately outplayed by far superior opposition, taking losses to the tune of 20-2 and 14-5 respectively in a showing of the strength of the Blue Jays outfit, especially on home soil. Quoted by 5ths coach Travis Jenkins as being a “very high calibre opposition”, the Tigers can hold their head high knowing that there is always next week, and a first game loss will not define their seasons.
The Women’s Tigers were again on the road, this time to Springvale to take on the Big Cats in a game that saw them score in every inning played to quickly put the game out of reach. With coach Russell Jeffery again implementing a game style heaving on keeping runners in motion, the visitors racked up 10 stolen bases to go with their nine base hits and 12 walks. Billie McCulloch, Jess McDonald and Vanessa Chinn led the way with two hits each, whilst McDonald (three), McCulloch, Chelsea Mosbey and Heather Mather (two each) paced the team in stolen bases. Mosbey again took the start for the visitors before handing the ball to Mather to close out in the third and last inning.
