18’s blitz Bellville

The u18 team from the word go looked like they came to make a statement. They dominated every aspect of the game and held nothing back in crushing bellville 20 – 2 in 5 innings. Scoring 5 runs in the 4 innings of batting. The hitters showed why VOB is a power house team in their league. Matthew Blows hit well with 2 homeruns while Luke November added another triple to his stats. Once again shakeel and Alec were consistent with the bat picking up multiple hits. Shakeel put in a man of the match performance as he also pitched a complete game from the mound in his first start of the season.

It was a very impressive showing from the macaws as they continue to build momentum. All the boys looked like they had loads of fun on the field and have now shacken off they shackles of not playing much baseball in recent times. I was very happy as the team hit well with a collection of 15 hits in total.

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10’s take on Tygers.

VOB U10 Studs took on the mighty Tygers, who havent lost a game this past weekend. We started the 1st inning well restricting Tygers to 3 runs. However thereafter it seema the wheels on the bus fell off. As we had played Tygers before and know that they can hit dingers, we opted with our 3 awesome players in the outfield who eliminated any hit to the outfield.

Some nice work by Chad and Ronaldo while Smiley took a magic catch on the boundary. Meanwhile in the diamond we had young Kimmie taking plays at 2nd like a pro. Our batting let us down a lot in this game, but we will continue to work on it. On the batting front it was nice to see young Joel crushing the ball down the 1st baseline after struggling in this his first baseball season. Final score VOB 8 TYGERS 26.

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What a day…

This weekend saw our little peewee hero’s take on Bellville at our home field. From the start of the game, as a first time coach for this league, I knew I was going to be humbled by these kids. What an awesome experience to see young boys and girls have the time of their lives, playing a game they enjoy. There were some stand out performances by Dannielle at pitcher, Charlie making a nice stop at 3rd and then a sweet in the park home run by Riley May. Final score…KIDS HAD FUN!!! A big THANK YOU to all the parents who came out to support.

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The Battle of the Bulge.. Masters take on Battswood.

VOB vs Battswood. HADLEY made an appearance as our starting pitcher after being out for quite a few months. Solid start by him but Battswood had the lead in the second inning leading us by 5-3.It looked like it was going to be one of those games where all our solid hits went straight to their fielders. Charlie leading off with absolutely no idea what a leadoff role is hits the second ball for a homerun. To make things even worse, hes second at bat he hits another homerun.

Bradley Weeder also hitting a long one having a great day with the bat. Overs also, wait, sorry I can’t remember Overs doing much in this game but I think he hit a triple. No, sorry not sure, can’t remember. Ag, it doesn’t matter. So Overs was also at the field. Everybody contributed in some way with the bat which saw us pushing away from Battswood in the last inning. Yusuf with a beatiful pop up line drive to left field with two RBIs.

Adie came to close and now had a nice cushion and finished very strongly. Play of the day has to be Shaun with two outstanding plays at shorts top that got us out of the one inning in no time. Allister also with a beautiful double play, strike out and pick off to second base showing his strong arm and accurate throwing. Yusuf handled that pick off like the ninja we know he is and tagged the runner 10 metres short of second base.Yusuf had a bunt moment which one would expect a guy like Overs would do. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

Fantastic comeback by a bunch of individuals with four hundred and seventy eleven personalities. But that is what makes this team so interesting. Laughter and drinks were flowing after a great game of baseball. VOB 13-6BATTSWOOD.

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VOB 18’s stagger to 10 – 6 win over Battswood

Racing to a 9 run lead going into the 3rd inning VOB looked on course to end this game early. But poor hitting and pitch selection in the box slowed the rapid scoring down during the 3rd to 6th inning with the VOB bats going to sleep some what. Battswood who looked like they were in for a tough outing did well to stay in the game with some good fielding and hits when it matters most. Whilst VOB let themselves down with abnormal errors and they seemed to switch off for a few moments.

Lucas Budler started on the mound for VOB and threw 3 strong inning before starting to tire and give away walks. He did well to throw himself out of a jam but some damage was done as battswood closed the gap to just a 3 run difference. Kian Africa came on to steady the ship and close out the game.

From the hitting side once again Alec and shakeel stepped up and both collected 2 hits but man of match Hayden stepped and hit VOB into a winning position. Matthew Blows was fill of energy once again and Alex Japhta also looked good with bat in hand.

Another hard fought win for the u18 team as they start to pick up some needed momentum going into the 2nd round of games.

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The one that got away!

The Macaws welcomed Bellville Tygers to Chukker road on Saturday trying to continue their win streak.
But this was going to be a tough task as Tygers are loaded with current and past national team players.


Macaws handed the pearl to Michael Scritten while Bellville opposes with ex-SA pitcher Lloyd Stevens. After what has become a regular first inning error Scritten worked his way out of trouble and blanked Tygers in their first inning. VOB leadoff Jared “JH”Haynes got on base with a walk and was moved to 2B by Luke November. The perfect start for the Macaws with their leadoff in scoring position with one out and the 3 and 4 hitters up to hit. Unfortunately JH has other ideas and tried stealing 3B where he was easily thrown out by Tygers catcher Tyrone Milne and just like that Tygers for themselves out of a hole with stevens striking out Derick “Boy” Bayliss.


The second inning started with Scritten hitting SA player Charl Cordier then a mishit infield single had Tygers on 1 and 2 with no outs and threatening to score. A strike, fly ball to shortstop and and an out at first base stopped Tygers in their tracks. Again the Macaws opened the inning with their leadoff getting on with Lance Gordon lacing a double to right centre to have the leadoff in run scoring position with no outs. For the second consecutive inning poor base running by VOB for Bellville off the hook with Gordon being thrown out at 3B by a quick thinking Jonathan Phillips on a hit to shortstop. Two batters later a 6-6-3 double play by Phillips again got Tygers off the hook. 0-0 after two.


Four consecutive hits to open the 3rd inning saw Tygers take a 2-0 lead before scritten settled and for out if the inning. Tygers Stevens blanked VOB to keep the score at 2-0 after 3 innings. Bellville’s leadoff for on base and was immediately hunted to 2B. Then a line shot by SA outfielder Josh Halvorsen was superbly snagged by Scritten who doubled off the leadoff to get out of the inning with 5 pitches – VOB has their tails up. Once again Gordon opened the inning with a hit, albeit a fortunate bounce over the Tygers 2 basemen for VOB to have their fourth consecutive leadoff on base. This was followed by a walk and suddenly the Macaws again had a runner in scoring position with no outs. Zubair Larney then laced one to right field to score Gordon and it was game on at 2-1 to Tygers. Stevens was rattled at this stage and hit the next batter to load the bases with no outs. Stevens composes himself to face his opposite number, Scritten, and duly got Scritten to hit into a 5-2-3 double play to keep VOB from scoring. Still VOB had runners on 2 and 3 and a chance to score, albeit with two outs. Jesse Johnson then drilled one up the middle only for Phillips to make an outstanding instinctive stop and a good throw to end the inning. 2-1 in Tygers favour which could easily have been 3-2 in Macaws favour had it not been for Phillips and some ordinary Macaws situational hitting.


It stayed 2-1 until the 6th when Tygers showed their experience by scoring in simple fashion to lead 3-1. Bellville replaces Stevens with ex-pro pitcher Callan Pearce who has only just returned to baseball after two years away from the game. The rust was evident and Pearce walked the first two hitters he faced for the Macaws again to have runners on 1 and 2 with no outs. Again the Macaws hitters showed their inexperience in situations hitting and the next two hitters struck out while the final out flew out for Pearce to preserve Bellvilles lead. Derick Bayliss replaced Scritten in the 7th inning with the score 3-1 in Tygers favour. Two strike outs, a base on balls and a fly ball got Bayliss easily out of the 7th inning. Again Pearce walked the first two hitters he faced and again VOB were in scoring position with no outs. Two weak fly balls followed by a third walk again had VOB with bases loaded, albeit with two outs. For the umpteenth time in the game the VOB inexperience showed with the hitter swinging early instead of being patient and a foul fly was comfortably handled by Milne to again end the threat.
The 8th inning started perfectly for the Macaws with Bayliss striking out Tristan Matthee. Then the wheels came off back to back to back base hits giving Tygers some insurance runs. Then twonroutine errors allowed Tygers to score a few more and ending the inning leading 7-1. SA pitcher Kevin Townend replaced Pearce and comfortably for Macaws out. VOB replaced Bayliss with Jesse Johnson for the 9th inning. A mishit ended in a throwing error and Tygers had their leadoff on. A “sacrifice” bunt back to Johnson ended with the lead runner being thrown out at 2nd and then Jesse superbly struck Halvorsen out before a broken bat hit had runners on 1 and 2 with SA captain Phillips up to bat. Johnson did a superb job to fool Phillips who was thrown at at first from shortstop.


One last chance for Macaws, but Townend was having none of it and struck out two hitters to end the game 7-1 in Tygers favour.
Many opportunities for the Macaws to win this one, but Tygers experience win this one.
Lance Gordon (2-3, 2B, 2BB’s) and Jared Haynes (0-1, 4BB’s) were best hitters on the day.
Another good game between these two teams this season.

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Macaws hold on to do the double over Giants

VOB, on a 3-game losing streak, welcomed Maitland Giants to a very windy Chukker Road on Saturday.


Jesse Johnson took the mound for the Macaws while Giants went with their southpaw foreigner Connor Walsh. Two routine errors allowed Giants to race into a 2-0 lead only for the Macaws to storm back with 4 runs of their own on the back of 4 walks and a double by Matthew Darius. Giants scored 2 more runs over the next two innings while VOB wasted many opportunities with runners in scoring positions. While Walsh labored through his allotted five innings, Johnson kept blanking the Giants. In the fifth inning VOB eventually took their opportunities and went ahead 6-4. Johnson was replaced in the 6th inning by Derick Bayliss. Then, two outs in the 8th a few routine errors again cost the Macaws and Giants ties the game at 6-6.

With bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th Jody Burch was brought on to pinch hit for Luke Budler and smashed the first pitch he saw for to the outfield for the lead. By the end of the 8th VOB had scored four more runs to lead 10-6. With two outs and a runner on first, back to back bad hops allowed Giants to come within one run of tying the game, but Bayliss knuckled down and struck out Alex Fortune to close out the game 10-9 in VOB’s favour.

A good team win for VOB gets them back in the W column.

Best hitters for VOB were Jesse Johnson (1-2, 3BB’s, double), Matthew Darius (2-3, BB, double), Luke Budler (1-4) and Zubair Larney (1-3, 2BB’s, double).

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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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18’s kick the rust with a solid performance against Ocean view.

After a 2 month lay off due to league fixtures being a bit erratic VOB finally got going again this past weekend. We started very slow and had clear signs of a lack of match readiness and game time. Ocean view did the basics well and made some good defensive plays which kept the score line modest. Our bats came to life if the 3rd inning and we a collection of base hits together to score 5 runs.

Kian Africa control the game well from the mound throwing a no hitter going in the 4th and unfortunately his lack of game time showed as he tired. Josh Adonis came on to close out the game as VOB added another 5 rub inning to close out the game 13 – 0. On the day shakeel and Alec lead the team with 3 hits each. Happy to get underway again and look forward to out next game.

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Tens travel well?

This week saw our young ballers travel to Pirates. Given the distance a number of boys were late for call up but 15 mins before game time we had 9 players. All in all a good game defensively, however we need to stop throwing the ball unnecessarily once it hits the diamond. Batting must be said needs a lot of work as there are players, despite being told what not to do, still choose to change the direction and stroke of the ball.

Individual performance needs to be stopped and performing for the team needs to be the priority. It must also be said that there was some major improvement specifically Joel Roland who batted 4/5 in comparison to 0/4 in his last outing. Final score VOB 25 Pirates 18.

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