VOB were on the road to take on the Villians in Durbanville on Saturday. The Macaws up and down season continued against a team that they should be beating, but this time sloppy fielding killed any chance the Macaws had of continuing their upward trend.
Villians started with Stuart Baron and Macaws countered with Derick “Boy” Bayliss.
VOB immediately jumped to a 2-0 lead in their first batting turn through hits by Luke November and Lance Gordon, only for Villians to come straight back and score two of their own. Macaws and Villians traded runs before Macaws sloppy fielding came to the fore. Two routine errors turned into a 5 run fifth inning. Macaws then scored single runs in two innings and restricted Villians to zeroes to bring score to 9-6 in the 7th inning. Game on?? Instead, VOB again allowed themselves to gift Durbanville 4 runs and pretty much playing themselves out of the game.
A few dubious pick off plays called outs by the Durbanville umpire had VOB fuming, but overall it was the Macaws own sloppy fielding that was the difference in the game.
Bayliss (5IP, 10runs not many earned) was replaced by Damian Perkins who threw 2 innings and conceded 4 runs before he tired. Jesse johnson threw the 8th inning (1 hit, 2 K’s).
Best hitters for Macaws were Luke November (1-3, 2B, BB,HBP), Lance Gordon (2-4, 2B, K), Damian Perkins (1-2, BB, K) and Jesse Johnson (1-3, K).
Back to the drawing board for Macaws
Final score was 6-14
Thistle came out firing, scoring 2 unanswered runs in the first inning against a Macaw side who probably took this win for granted. VOB only got their first hit in the third inning and were being frustrated by Keegan “Gazza” Watson, the thistle starter.
In a shortened game the kids managed to squeeze in 9 runs even though we could have amassed so much more. But due to the amount of inexperienced players we had to stop the running game which we are very good at. And play it base by base on our hits.
Macaws visited Mavericks in Milnerton on Saturday with the intention of continuing the upward curve. And it did not take long for VOB to show they were serious by scoring 5 runs in their first inning via a 3-run bomb from Derick Bayliss and a 2-run shot from Lance 
Gordon.
Then Johnson got sloppy on the hill and walked two before unnecessary sloppy baseball allowed Mavericks to score 3 runs to stay in the game at 10-3. Damian Perkins was called in to replace Johnson and immediately shut Mavericks down.
With Wednesday evening training being cancelled due to exams, Friday training seemed to be a bit difficult for the u15s. Unfortunately, this ‘difficult’ period carried into the start of the game on Saturday against an unbeaten team. Jamie “but my slippers are navy blue coach” Brookes got his 1st start for the season throwing to Josh “I’m more tired than Jared” Smith who also had his 1st game behind the plate.
The necessary plays were made to keep Giants scoreless and then everybody started swinging the bat so aggressively Mikaeel De Bruyn decided to swing at a pitch the same height as his head to clear the right outfielder. Going in to the top of the 5th at 11-6 up, a quick 3 up, 3 down saw everybody run off the field with a smile. Rio Harrison giving his dad a perfect birthday present by taking a fantastic diving catch at shortstop to end the 4th frame and a good strong throw to make the 3rd out to end the game in the 5th.
The Kids pull off another last inning win this Saturday against Maitland Giants 11 – 10. Again we hit our way to victory, with the team getting 12 hits and 4 walks combined. This is a good indication of where we want to be with this team by teaching them to hit ahead of teaching them to take walks because sometimes the pitching is not good and they struggle to throw strikes. But our kids are not allowed to let a strike go past them. if it is hittable they will be swinging at it.
Even though the score says it was a hitting game it was not. giants only accumulated 3 hits in total they had amassed 11 walks in the game. Their coach had them bunting runs home and letting their kids steal home as well . Not the right way to be coaching 10 and 11 year olds at all. But none the less The Kids did themselves proud by pulling off a hard-fought win. Bottom of the 4th inning we had Tristan Jeftha drawing a walk and getting the winning run on base. Then up steps Dale Lewis with none down , he perfectly hits the ball to right field getting tristan to thirdbase and himself to second on the over throw. Storm doyle who is 2 for 2 at this stage drives the ball between 1st and 2nd for his 3rd hit and the Game winning RBI .
Another mention must go to Caleb Bell for making a play down the middle with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 2 down in the 4th inning to end a threat of giants taking the lead, as well as Jaedon Jonathan coming in to relieve Talun on the hill when giants had their big inning. And the plays of the day for me was a diving stop by dante on first base and Nur’s drive to right centre in the second inning. Well done boys!!! things are looking bright.
Again Luke Budler started well with a strikeout, then walked the next batter. A stolen base, a K and another walk seemed to pose no particular threat, but an infield error on a straightforward ground ball saw Crusaders capitalise and score a run. A third K, after third walk, saw the now bases loaded threat put to bed. Two walks and a Hit By Pitch laid the table for cleanup hitter Jordyn Riffel. The first run came as leadoff Luke November scored on a passed ball, and then Jordyn’s sac fly duly brought in Budler for the second run to give VOB U18 the lead. Seth Beukes followed with a right hand side of the infield ground ball rbi scoring Keegan Hickley. 0 – 3.