2nds Come Prepared- Win it late.

The ball was handed to Naeem for the start to go up against Sig’s Dylan Stark. It was evident that, if we played the terrible field conditions properly, this would be a good match up. Stark started throwing our hitters off balance and threw up zeros till the 4th inning. Naeem, who was also throwing well and worked out of several jams, 2 runs (1 earned) in the same 4 innings. Top 5 Sig 2 VOB O.


Our hitters would finally get a handle on Stark and score 3 runs on some good timely hitting and a great drag bunt by Luke Budler who had come in for an unwell Robin Jones. With a slender 2-3 lead in the bottom of the 5th, Josh Rich came in to close, which is what he did with a clean 5th inning. With our tails up in the 6th, we would push across another 3 insurance runs which included a Josh Rich RBI triple. Rich then came back on the mound in the bottom of the inning to shut the door and give us a very satisfying 2-6 win.


best hitters on the day
L.Budler 1 for 2 with 2 RBIs
Zubi 1 for 3 with 1 RBI
Kyle 2 for 4 with 1 RBI
Josh 1 for 3 with 1RBI
Great performance but lots of work still to be done.

No Comments From the DugoutMajor League Reserve

Right Field spot up for grabs? Masters beat Durbanville.

 It was a scorcher in Durbanville as Glen started the pitching and kept the opponents at bay. The bat’s came out firing AGAIN as we we scored 6 runs in the first inning. Not so much Yusufs bat though. He’s bat looked a bit moeg. The 2nd inning was where we actually broke the back of our opponents and scored 12 runs. Some great hitting by most especially Charlie, Tyron with a homerun and Adie with a homerun as well. The other hits were shared amongst all.

Bailey came on to pitch in the 3rd inning and got us two quick outs. And this is where things got a little interesting. I’m not gonna mention any names, but our quota player made an error which would have gotten Bailey out of there with no runs scored. Instead Durbanville ended up scoring 9 runs after that which made the game look a lot tighter than it actually was.

The highlite of the game has to be Mr Overmeyer who played rightfield and obviously thought that it was a stationary position.Daai ding het nie gemoove nie. Anything that was hit his way our poor centre fielder had to run for. And he was still stationary. Don’t ask me why. I just saw Bradley drop kick his glove about 40 metres out of frustration for our rightfielder. I think about 5 of those 9 runs came from the right field side.Coach will have to rethink that position. 😂Adie finished the game in style by closing down the opponents.

Another day filled with laughter and some lekka baseball. Final score Durbanville 11-18 VOB.

No Comments From the DugoutMasters

Vob u12s/10s beat helderberg u12s/15s 9 – 8

So they day started off with only 5 u12 players arriving for the game in helderberg… A quick chat with u10 coach David Beukes got us enough for a starting line up and a bench. Thanks must go to the u10 parents that stayed to support and let there kids play some real baseball. Most of the kids got to face real pitching for the first time in a game so it was awesome to see the excitement in there eyes.

Kolbe started on the hill for the macaws and got us back into the dug out after giving up a few walks and striking out 2 batters. With our normal catcher not around we had to go to Talun who is our third base usually and he struggled to hold into the 3rd strike, giving pirates easy passes onto base. A change in pitching and catching saw the macaws settle down and finish the game in style. U10 SS zeake Sellars did a sterling job In relief and getting us the win vs pirates.

Kolbe impressed at catcher during his stint and had a great play to end the game with pirates threatening to win the game in the last inning with 2 down and the macaws up 9-8 with runners on 1st and 2nd, pirates tried a double steal to get runners into scoring position but it back fired on them as zeake threw a perfect strike and caleb bell caught and fired the ball to smiley on third base for the tag out and ball game. Well done and Thank you to Dawie for helping me out with some great U10s for the win.

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Macaws edged in thriller


Macaws were on the road to face Bellville Tygers at PP Smit on Saturday. Tygers were looking for revenge after losing the opening day game against VOB, also at home.
This time around Tygers were bolstered by all their national players as well as ex-SA pitcher Lloyd Stevens who crossed over from Athlone A’s this season.

VOB handed the pearl to Mikey Scritten while Tygers countered with Stevens.

The teams traded zeroes in the first two innings with Stevens very very economical while Scritten laboured a bit. In the third inning Tygers exploded with a few timely hits to take a 2 -0 lead. In the meantime Stevens kept the Macaws in check while Tygers scored another run in the 5th inning.

Macaws replaced Scritten with Damian Perkins in the 6th while Stevens continued with his domination.

At the beginning of the 7th Bellville and Stevens were cruising. Suddenly the Macaws exploded with the bats. A double by Derrick Bayliss followed by a triple by Lance Gordon and an RBI groundout but by Jody Burch and all of a sudden Stevens was under pressure at 3-2. 3 more hits and a walk and VOB ended the 7th 4-3 up even though Stevens was replaced by current SA pitcher Kevin Townsend.
SA captain Johny Phillips lead off the 7th with a hit. Two K’s later and Macaws were looking to stay ahead but Phillips has other ideas. He took advantage of the inexperience of VOB’s Infield and a LHP pitcher to steal home and tie the game at 4.

But by this stage the Macaws tails were up and even tying the game did not matter to them.Back to back hits to open the 8th and again the Macaws took the game to Tygers and scored to lead 5-4. Tygers backs were against the wall with two out and runners on 2nd and 3rd and SA player Charl Cordier in the box. Cordier was 0-4 in the game and struggling in this at bat when he latched onto am Inside pitch and laced it down left field line to score 2 runs and giving Tygers a 6-5 lead.

Now it was up to Townsend to keep VOB scoreless if Tygers wanted to win and this he did without any issues striking out the final hitter of the game.

A brilliant game 1 of the top 6 league and a good advert for CTBF major league.

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VOB 7 – 6 Athlone Athletics (A’s)

A game dubbed, by the players, as “the biggest for the season” saw an almost full training squad, grinding on both Wednesday & Friday training sessions to work off the festive season eats…
Although still in holiday mode, there had been quite a bit of excitement leading up to this game as A’s have only had 1 loss for the season and are considered to be 1 of the strongest teams in the u15 league.
Due to a mishap on A’s “B-field” which was scheduled to host this clash, the game had to be delayed by 30mins. This seemed to have put our kids in a very relaxed mode. So relaxed that in the 1st frame, 1 of them forgot to bat. Unfortunately, the beginning of the game was no different to majority of their games for the season with the kids only waking up in the 3rd & 4th frames and by this time, they were already 6-1 down. A quick pep-talk and some serious motivation from their adoring fans behind 3rd base/home plate and they manged to find the “ON” switch.


WOW…..what a turn around. These kids decided to play VOB baseball…and then some! Taking advantage where ever they could to get runners on and move the runners over that by the time it was side away, the coach was so excited that he didn’t even realize they had gone ahead by 1 run. This meant there were just 3 more outs that had to be made to end the ballgame but it seemed like the excitement got the better of the players and after a few “brain-farts” had found themselves with 2 outs and runners on 2nd & 3rd base but then managed to dig a little deeper and get that last out for the win.
If this is what these kids are capable of while still in a very relaxed holiday mode, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has in store.
Good luck to the boys taking part in the District tournament this weekend…go make us proud!

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Macaws massacre Battswood

VOB Macaws completed the double header weekend with a resounding 18-0 win over their Chukker road Neighbour’s Battswood.

Macaws handed the ball to Michael Scritten hoping to continue from their big victory over Athlone A’s on Saturday. It was immediately evident that Battswood were in for a very tough day when Scritten went through the first three Battswood hitters in 12 pitches. Then the Macaws offense absolutely climbed into the young Battswood pitchers scoring 8 runs after sending 13 hitters to the plate in their first inning. From there it was downhill for Battswood with Macaws scoring in every inning before the mercy rule came into effect.

Scritten was very tough and finished the day pitching 5 innings, giving up 4 hits, no runs while striking out 7. The VOB defense was also flawless for a change committing no errors.

Every VOB hitter contributed to their huge victory.
Jared Haynes (1-3,BB, K), Zubair Larney (1-2, 2BB’s, triple), Derrick Bayliss (1-2, 2BB’s), Lance Gordon (1-3, BB), Jody Burch (0-0, BB, 2xHBP), Matthew Darius (1-1), Marvin Mahoney (2-3, double, triple, BB), Scritten (1-3, double, BB), Liam Willenberg (2-4) and Jesse Johnson 1-2, double, BB)

A great weekend for the Macaws who finish the first round with a 9-3 record and a spot in the top 6.

1 Comment From the DugoutMajor LeagueWeekly Roundup

Masters still got their mojo as they beat Pirates 23 – 8

VOB vs Pirates.It was a day of surprises as Wayne Ripepi started at 1st base showing Haliem how its done.Its only a pity that he stopped all the balls with his body. Who needs a glove.Pirates surprised us as they went ahead 8-4 at the end of the second inning.

A few errors made our starting pitcher Earl Pentolfe pull a hamstring from all the stress.Bradley Weeder adding a little to that stress running past a ball in centre field. Kulpy would have died if he had to witness that.

Nigel hitting a homerun was one of the highlites. The only reason however that was a homerun is because he had Yusuf and Tyron infront of him on the bases.With a few other guys on base it would have been a routine double.Ricky was solid with the bat hitting 3-3 while Tyron was also 3-3 pop ups to the catcher.Not he’s best batting display.

Who, ME???

But the highlite surely has to be Yusuf (good hair) Daniels coming on as relief pitcher throwing a no hitter for the next 3 innings.One of those innings was a new club record with only 4 pitches. Well done Yusuf and please feel free to share some of that expensive gel with your team mates for the photos.

All and all a great game full of fun and laughter as always with teamspirit you won’t find anywhere else.

No other way we would want to spend our Saturday afternoons.

No Comments FixturesFrom the DugoutMastersWeekly Roundup

Macaws stun A’s at Parktown


With the resumption of baseball the old rivalry between A’s and VOB took centre stage at A’s home ground in Parktown.


A’s started with SA pitcher Dean Jacobs whole the Macaws countered with Derrick Bayliss. From the outset it seemed like a run or two would be enough to win this one as the conditions were terrible with the south Easter in full force blowing behind the pitchers backs. Jacobs and Bayliss traded zeroes for three inning before VOB burst out with 3 runs in the fourth. A’s responded with two of their own runs courtesy of some VOB errors.

However, this did not deter the Macaws who scored 2 unanswered runs in the 5th and another one on the 6th to storm into 6-2 lead. At this stage A’s replaced Jacobs with another SA pitcher, lefty Cameron Fortuin while VOB brought in a lefty of their own in Damian Perkins. Perkins was outstanding shutting down the Athletics offense until sloppy fielding allowed two runs to be scored in the 9th. However, by then, VOB had scored 4 more runs already to lead 10-2.


Macaws sealed the win 10-4 on another strike out by Perkins.
Best hitters for Macaws were Jared Haynes (2-3, 2B, 3xBB’s), Luke November 0-2, 4xBB’s), Bayliss (2-4), Lance Gordon (1-3, 2xBB’s) and Jesse Johnson (1-3, 2xBB’s).

A great morale boosting win for Macaws guarantees a top 6 place and potentially second place once teams split into top6 and bottom 7.

1 Comment From the BallparkFrom the DugoutMajor League

Mid Season Review

With a very young inexperienced team at ML level, the expectation at the start of the 2018/2019 season was to consolidate and get a structure where consistency became the key.

The Macaws welcomed Derrick “Boy” Bayliss (ex-KZN player) after a five year work stint in Dubai. Joining Boy at the Macaws this season was better known Cape Town baller Damian Perkins who relocated to the southern suburbs of Cape Town.

That immediately added to utility type players who both are comfortable on the hill, which is what VOB needed after losing Kieran Moore (overseas) and Andy Orfanakos (back home in Canada).

The surprise for Macaws must be their very young players who have stepped up and commanding regular starting spots. Luke November has continued to grow into a solid ML player, Jesse Johnson has shown he is determined to be a decent ML player this season while Lance Gordon and Liam Willenberg wanted to establish themselves as regulars at Macaws and WP level. Johnson surprised everyone when he was given the start against Bellville Tygers on day one and held the Tygers to 1 run in his start before handing the balm over to the senior pitchers. VOB surprised and beat Tygers on that day.

However, young teams all suffer from one thing – consistency. And this Macaws team was no different. At the mid-season break the Macaws are 7-3, but should easily be sitting on a 9-1 record had it not been for losses to teams that they should have beaten in Pirates and Durbanville.

Overall, if we had been told at the beginning of the season that we would be 7-3 at the break, I am sure we would have been happy, but it shows that this team knows that they are capable of more and are not happy with their current record of 7-3.

Now to see how the mid-season break has affected this team as well as all the others? Did they all just take a break and eat puddings or did they continue preparing for the second half of the season and a top 6 spot?

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