Though displaying plenty of the grit and determination that has led them to consecutive premierships, it was another hard fought but tough loss for the Upwey Ferntree Gully Tigers as they fell to local rival Blackburn 5-3.
Playing under cloudless blue skies at Billabong Park, the visiting Tigers were put on the back foot by an aggressive Burners team, who plated two runs in the bottom of the first against Upwey starter Jarrod Turner.
Turner settled into his work over the next four innings, although giving up an additional two runs after a more than questionable call at 2nd base in the 5th inning which Blackburn took full advantage of.
Blackburn’s American import to his credit was fantastic, stranding the bases loaded twice whilst also leaving another five runners on base as he made key pitches and found ways to Houdini his way out of the tightest of situations.
To their credit, the Tigers kept putting runners on base and applying pressure, leading to a pitching change in the 5th inning as Jarrod “Sauce” Hotchison came into the game for Blackburn and continued to keep Upwey out of the game, stranding further runners while providing Blackburn the opportunity to increase their lead to 5-2 after Upwey created single runs in the 5th and 6th innings.
The Tigers loaded the bases again with two outs in the 7th inning, however Josh Hendricks could not find grass with a missile of a line drive to left field which, on any other day, would likely have found grass and put the Tigers within striking distance.
Creating another run in the 8th inning through multiple hits and smart, determined at bats, the Tigers could sense a comeback win was on the cards, however Hotchison had other ideas, slamming the door shut in the 9th inning with a 1-2-3 inning to lead the Burners to their 2nd win, improving to 2-2 on the year and pushing into 8th place.
The Tigers fall to 1-3 and unfortunately find themselves in 15th, but still well within contention as they are only one game out of 8th.
In other results, the Upwey 2nds improved to 4-0 for the season after a strong 5-1 win behind stellar pitching performances from Tristan Mealey and Sean Meldrum.
Mealey, making his first start of the season, was fantastic in his role, going four scoreless innings, only surrendering three hits and one hit batter before handing the ball to Meldrum to finish off.
Working two fuss free innings, the veteran ran into a spot of bother in the 7th, as a combination of an error, a hit and a walk saw Blackburn load the bases, force across a run on a walk, before Meldrum induced the rare 3-2-3 double play to end the game.
To their credit, the Tigers combined multiple hits with aggressive base running as well as taking advantage of some Blackburn errors to keep the pressure on their opponent all day, as they scored in four of the seven innings played.
The result sees the Tigers in a two-way tie for 1st with Geelong, a full game clear of Waverley, Moorabbin and Berwick who are all tied with a 3-1 record.
In the 3rds, the Tigers played out a hard fought 5-5 tie with the Burners, both teams who came into the game with a perfect 3-0 record and could not be separated all day, eventually running out of time before the Tigers were able to find the winning run.
Both teams improve to 3-0-1 in a tie for 2nd place, a half game behind last year’s premier Geelong, who are 4-0 in a strong start to their season.
In the 4ths, the Tigers supported coach Richard Ferguson on the mound, jumping to an early lead and continuing to push runners across the plate, keeping the Burners at arms-length for the remainder of the game.
The win sees the Tigers improve to 4-0 in a tie for 1st place with Essendon, while the Burners fall to .500 and sit at 2-2 but still well in the race in 8th place.
In the Regional Metro South game against Springvale, a volleyball game broke out, as scoring runs was the order of the day.
The home squad found a way to keep scoring runs when it mattered, eventually ran out 15-13 winners in a bad game for pitchers, but a great game for boosted batting averages.
The Regional Metro East game unfortunately did not go ahead, as the Tigers handed Springvale a walkover.
