By Sean Talbot
The Upwey Ferntree Gully Tigers kicked off their 2024/25 season by pulling off a stunning, come-from-behind 5-3 over the Essendon Bombers at Boeing Reserve in Strathmore Heights on Sunday afternoon.
With both clubs sending their ace to the hill (Upwey with Jarrod Turner, Essendon with Gareth Formisano), runs were hard to come by in the first few innings as both starters traded scoreless first, second and third innings in quick order with minimal resistance. Essendon struck first after Formisano threw a scoreless fourth, opening their account after Jarrod Rogers singled, Cory Rodwell doubled, and Lachie Condie hit a sacrifice flyball to centerfield to score Rogers.
A scoreless fifth inning was traded by both clubs before the Bombers pushed across a second run in the bottom of the sixth inning, this time the result of Rogers’ single, a Tigers error and an RBI groundball, again off the bat of Condie who picked up his second RBI of the game before Turner escaped the jam, ending his day after 6 innings where he surrendered five hits, two runs (one earned) and four strikeouts.
Formisano continued his miserly start, throwing a seventh scoreless inning with minimal pushback to finish his day where he gave up a mere four hits, no runs and four strikeouts. Taking the ball from his ace, Upwey club coach Donavon Hendricks took the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning, surrendering a one-out single before a lineout and a fly ball to send the game to the eighth inning with Essendon still holding a 2-0 lead.
With Formisano’s day done, Lachie Amon took the ball for the Bombers and was immediately met by an Upwey attack that saw Nice Rice lace a one-out infield single to second base before Pete Schroeders tattooed a tripe on an 0-1 pitch to deep centerfield to score Rice before Harvey Chinn cashed in with an RBI infield single before Amon picked up a strikeout.
With the score now level at 2-2, Hendricks worked his way around a leadoff walk and some fumbled Tiger defense to avoid any further runs scoring and send the game to the ninth still locked at 2-2. Josh Hendricks led off with a walk for Upwey before advancing on Flynn Morrison’s single to right field. Wade McConnon cashed in on the opportunity, lacing a double to right field to score Morrison and give Upwey a 3-2 lead, before Staci Rogers singled to centerfield to score McConnon and Hendricks to push the lead to 5-3. Upwey were able to further load the bases on two walks, however they could not capitalise further.
Hendricks took the mound in the bottom of the ninth looking to close the door, however Essendon made the veteran work for it, with Sullivan, Baumann and Speirs all putting balls in play to create Essendon’s third run before Baumann was thrown out attempting to go first-to-third to end the game and hand Upwey a hard-fought 5-3 victory.
Upwey will now shift their attention to next weekend as they host Doncaster Dragons at Kings Park.
Trailing all day against last years finalists, the Reserves scored two in the fifth and four in the sixth to stun the home side Bombers and snatch a 6-5 victory at the death which saw Sean Meldrum and Windsor Breckenridge being trusted with starting their team’s season.
Essendon struck first with one in the second inning after a single, walk and a double, however Meldrum struck out Essendon hitters Gretch and Pearce to end the threat. The Tigers were kept off of the board in the third, however Essendon added another three runs after leading off with a double, single, double and another two singles before Meldrum struck out Baty-Smith, Gretch and Pearce to escape the jam.
Upwey loaded the bases in the top of the fourth with two out after a single to Matt Cameron and walks to Dan Smith and teenager Daniel Williams but were unable to capitalize as Breckenridge bore down for an inning-ending strike out. Dan Smith relieved Meldrum in the bottom half and kept Essendon off the scoreboard, sending the game to the top of the fifth with the Bombers still leading 4-0.
With the Bombers calling on Hamish Stone for relief, Pat Gawith led off the inning with an infield single, stealing second and advancing to third on a wild pitch before leadoff Shaun Irvine drove him in with a single to centerfield. Irvine stole second as Ash Geary-Smith walked to put runners at first and second before a double steal advanced the runners to second and third. Irvine was thrown out attempting to score on a wild pitch, but Geary-Smith successfully advanced to third and scored on a Cameron single to bring the score to 4-2 before a strikeout ended the half frame.
Smith made quick work of the home side in the bottom half, inducing a pair of groundouts and a strikeout looking to quickly bring the visitors up to bat. A leadoff strikeout only temporarily halted the Tigers momentum, as a one-out walk to Williams was followed by a stolen base and a single to centerfield by Kyle Hubbard to put runners at the corners with one gone.
The Bombers were forced to go to their bullpen, summoning Baty-Smith from left field to try and escape the jam with the lead intact after the Tigers took Stone to task, however the Tigers continued the pressure, with Gawith drawing a four pitch walk, settling to record a much-needed strikeout, however he then uncorked a wild pitch that allowed all runners to advance, scoring Williams. Geary-Smith was intentionally walked to load the bases, however a second wild pitch and a two-run single from Michael Oxworth gave Upwey a 6-4 lead before a groundout ended the inning.
Smith looked like he was going to quickly slam the door as he quickly recorded two outs, however a walk to the leadoff hitter was followed by a Nathan Rogers triple to centerfield to push the score to 6-5 and the tying run on third. Smith got Merzel to ground to Hubbard at shortstop, ended the inning and the game with the 6-5 final score.
Cameron and Hubbard led the Tigers with two hits each while Oxworth paced the team with two RBI as Meldrum and Smith combined for three innings apiece as well as 10 strikeouts in a promising start for a Tigers team which will certainly be looking to go all the way to a premiership after falling just short the last few seasons.
Out at Deep Creek Reserve in Doncaster East, Upwey’s Thirds and Fourths opened their season with a fair of thumping wins, besting the home sides 12-0 and 21-7 respectively to send a message to the league that both sides will look to challenge for a premiership, with the Fourths looking to go back-to-back.
The victories were further made better by the fact that both Tigers teams were missing multiple players from their usual starting lineups due to holidays and Williams’ promotion to the Reserves.
The Thirds and Fourths will each play host to Blackburn at Kings Park next weekend for what should be a massive weekend for the Tigers on home turf.
Kicking off their 2024/25 season by travelling to Cheltenham to take on the Lady Rustlers, the Upwey Ferntree Gully Lady Tigers outslugged and outran the home squad to eventually emerge victorious in an exciting and high-scoring contest.
As can be the case with a lot of Women’s games, runs came early and often, with both teams scoring one in the first, three in the third and the maximum seven in the fourth inning, with the two scored by the Lady Tigers in the top of the second ultimately being the difference.
Sporting a few new faces and temporarily without Zienna McCulloch, Sally Light and Hayley Mather, the Lady Tigers used their team speed to their advantage, racking up an otherworldly 15 stolen bases for the game, led by returning veteran Marika Booth with five of her own to go along with their seven team safe hits, led by Caitlin Kiel with two.
Chelsea Mosbey and Jessica “Dusty” McDonald handled the pitching duties for the Lady Tigers, combining for two strikeouts across their four innings of work.
The Lady Tigers will again be on the road next week as they travel to KH Wearne Reserve to take on the Lady Big Cats in what should be a terrific game.
