VOB hosted Silvertree on a cold Saturday morning. It seemed like Rugby fever took over with 4 players unavailable leaving us with 8 players, but this team now believe when they are told we play to win in every game, no matter what the circumstances.

This week the ball was given to Jaime Brookes for his pitching debut, the third different pitcher in three games. These players are not being surprised anymore when they are played in a position that they may not have before and the belief in doing a job for the team is growing. Jaime, who has a decent fastball but lacked control every now and again, pitched three good innings before he was replaced Mikhaeel “Mickey” de Bruin, who became the fourth pitcher in 3 games.

Mickey immediately got working by pounding the strike zone, which is exactly what the idea is behind the new rule changes in the second half of the game when the hitters start on 2-1 counts. As a first outing, Mickey was only allowed 40 pitches by the coach,’but he make full use and threw 28 of those pitches for strikes. The final pitching change brought Josh “the fireman” to close the game out with a 12 pitch inning.

On the hitting front the starter was also the power hitter. Jaime went 3-4 with a grand slam that easily cleared the fence as well as a triple. The other hitters who did well were Josh November (2-3, 2BB’s), Lee Adams (2-2, 2B, 2BB’s) and Mikhaeel de bruin (1-1, 3 BB’s).

Final score 9-4 in Macaws favour.

These guys and girl are learning nicely each week how the game needs to be played and are enjoying the challenges set for them each week. Even 8 versus 9 is no problem for this team.