VOB 16 – Crusaders 3

Good discipline at the plate and aggressive base running key to Macaws win

A good first home game for the VOB Macaws Reserves against their Grassy Park Crusaders counterparts running out 16-3 winners in 6 innings.

The game remained tight in the early innings with the score being 4-2 in favour of the Macaws after four and a half innings. Then a mammoth rally saw the Macaws accumulate 12 runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the game away from the Crusaders who only managed one more run in the sixth and final inning.

The Macaws struggled to straight steal against the left handed Crusaders starting pitcher Niyaas Galant, but took advantage of a lack of awareness from the catcher and middle infield to execute a number of delayed steals. This helped to disrupt the pitcher’s rhythm which made the job for the hitters in the box easier. After Niyaas departed the Macaws continued with the aggressive base running which was key to the fourth inning rally. This is an exciting addition to the reserves’ game that was not present in previous seasons.

The pitching start on the day was given to Kevin Mullins, pitching 2.1 innings and conceding no runs but leaving 2 runners on. Luke Budler replaced Mullins and completed 1.2 inning before the ball being handed to Naeem Dollie. During Budler’s stint, the 2 runners put on base by Mullins scored as a result of some fielding errors. Dollie closed out the game completing two innings while conceding 1 run. All of the pitchers did an excellent job in tying up the Crusaders hitters and allowing minimal free bases.

Top offensive performers on the day were Matthew Blows (2-3, HBP, 3B, 2 R), Daniel Darius (2-4, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R), Luke Budler (2-2, BB, SF, SB, 2 RBI, R) and Robin Jones (2-3, BB, SB, 2 3B, 2 RBI, 3 R).

Good discipline at the plate and aggressive base running were the keys to the win. This was a good progression from last week which if it continues will see this squad become a formidable unit.

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MLR vs Athlone A’s 15-14 (A’s)

 Our seniors were on the road to visit our southern suburb rivals at Parktown. Although we had quite a few players unavailable for the season opener we still had a solid team on the field. Lee van Wyk had the pleasure of getting the first start of the season and pitched 2.1 innings (8 hits, 3 ER’s, 3 BB’s, HBP, 2 K’s) before he tired and was replaced by Luke Budler. Budler (2.2. innings, 5 hits, 0 ER’s, 3 BB’s, 2 IBB’s, 2 K’s) and finally Kevin Mullins finished the game with 0 hits and runs against him.  

On the offensive side we strung together some good at bats and kept ahead of A’s for most of the game, but just did not capitalise on the base runners that we were getting on all the time. We were up 14-11 at the bottom of the last inning and then allowed A’s to equalise through some poor defense. The game went into extra innings and A’s kept us scoreless and had everything to play for to win their home opener. Unfortunately we kept our worst efforts for that inning and allowed A’s to win through a wild pitch.  

Best hitters were Luke Budler (1-4, RBi, SB), Kevin Mullins (2-5, RBi), Miguel Wilson (1-4, 2B, BB, RBi), Yusri Pretorius (1-4, 2B, BB, 2 RBi’s) and Lee van Wyk (2-2, 2BB’s, 2 RBi’s).   A really fun game that had plenty of ups and downs, but this young team has plenty of talent and will grow over the season. Watch this space!  
No Comments 2019 10 12From the DugoutGame DaysMajor League ReserveWeekly Roundup

2nds Dish up sloppy display – keep rolling

A’s 8 – VOB 16
With the pitching rotation’s roles becoming more defined, Naeem was handed the ball again this week against the old foe.He duly struck out the side with a somewhat impressive 1,2,3 – 10 pitch 1st inning.
With the tone been set, we sent 8 hitters to the plate for a 5 run 1st and a comfortable 0-5 lead.

Too much of a good thing……
Our old pal, complacency immediately arrived at the top of the 2nd. Bringing with him some sloppiness in the field with a touch of arrogance, which would see A’s pull back 2 runs and would eventually get A’s 4 unearned runs before the game was done. With Naeem in strike out mode all day, the boys managed to keep A’s at bay by getting out of jams and tacking on runs to our 1st inning lead at regular intervals.
Naeem would finish going 4 innings, giving up 2 ER on 3 hits and 9 K’s.
Josh entered the 5th in relief for 2 innings to shut the game down for another win, giving up 2ER on 4 hits and 4K’s.


Another allround contribution by the hitters this week as 7 of the 9 would get at least 1 RBI on the day.


Best hitters on the day
Zubi – 2/3 with 2RBI
Mullins – 1/4 with 3RBI
Jason Ranck- 1/1 with 1RBI
Yusri (terminator)1/3 with 2RBI

Loads of work still to be done with this young team, but we’ll take the win as well as the lessons learned.

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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.

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MLR continue making steady progress. 13-6 w

After losing the first 3 game of the season mostly due to defensive lapses MLR team has progressed steadily over the last 2 weeks picking up 3 wins in 3 games. The latest team to succumb to VOB were the Maitland Giants.

The game started with Lee van Wyk on the mound. Lee kept it simple and ended the inning in just 8 pitches while keeping the Giants scoreless. VOB responded scoring 3 runs to take a 3-0 lead. In the 2nd inning, van Wyk tried to do a bit too much and put a few runners on base allowing giants to pull 3 runs back tying the scores. VOB hit back with 4 more runs taking a 7-3 lead into the 3rd.

Giants managed to scrape 3 more runs in the next 2 innings before Jason Ranck came on to shut them out in the final 2 innings. VOB accumulated 6 more runs in their last few inning for a convincing 13-6 win.

Batting: Robin Jones (1-2, HBP, 2R, 3SB), Yusri Pretorius (2-4, SB, 2R), Kevin Mullins (3-4, 3SB, 3RBi, 3B, 3R), Matthew Darius (2-3, HBP, RBi, 2B), Jordyn Riffel (1-1, RBi, R)

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MLR struggle in Stellenbosch 4-17

It was another tough day at the park for the VOB reserves succumbing to 17-4 to Van Der Stel in the blistering Stellenbosch heat in 4 1/2 innings.

It was a game where VOB never got going. They had many scoring opportunities that they could not capitalise on getting the lead runner on base in every inning, VOB only managed to accumulate 4 runs mainly via the bats of Matthew Darius (3-3,2R), Jordyn Riffel (2-3,R,RBi), Jaryd Riffel (1-1,2RBi).

Defensively VOB once again struggled as 18U pitcher Kian Africa battled adjust to the umpire’s strike zone. A tough outing for him, but one that offers a valuable lesson as he get more exposure at a senior level. He wasn’t helped by the field though as VOB fielders didn’t take the chances that came their way. Africa was replaced in the 3rd inning by Kevin Mullins who wrapped up the inning. In the 4th inning Mullins battled on the mound. The ever reliable Matthew Darius was then called upon to close out the 4th inning.

VOB have a lot of work to do over the next 2 weeks if they want to get back to winning ways when the league resumes in 2 weeks’ time.

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MLR succumb to the Sig

The VOB Macaws reserves took on the reserves of the Bothasig Knights at the Chucker Road sports complex.

For VOB it was a bit of déjà vu as they let a commanding lead slip in the second half of the game, like they did the previous week, to hand the opposition the win. VOB opted to forfeit the points to allow Jayde Thorne to play so he could shake off some rust before representing South Africa in the inbound series against the French national team.

VOB started with Naeem Dollie on the mound. He kept Bothasig scoreless in the first inning and while VOB also failed to score. Dollie felt some discomfort in his shoulder and was replaced on the mound by Jayde Thorne at the top of the second. He restricted Bothasig to 2 runs in 3 innings while VOB scored 7 runs to take a 7-2 lead into the top of the 5th inning.

At the top of the 5th the heat got to Thorne as he conceded 3 more runs and left the bases loaded when Matthew Darius came on to relieve him. A series of unforced errors by VOB and some decent hitting by Bothasig saw them accumulate 10 runs in the final 2 innings. VOB was unable to score runs in the last few innings ending the game 7-12 in favour of Bothasig.

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