Macaws u15’s continue their W-streak against Neighbour’s.

The young Macaws were “on the road” to their neighbor’s, Battswood baseball club, on Saturday. This was our only “loss” of the season so far when Battswood claimed the points due to us ending with 6 players even though we out scored them convincingly on that day. The kids were ready for the return match to avenge their “loss”.

The day started with the twins, Jade and Josh November, celebrating their birthdays in the best way possible; by being at the ballpark LOL. After the team sang to wish the twins, the hitters immediately went to work against Battswood’s pitchers. 8 batters and 4 runs later we had a good foundation to work from.
Mikhaeel “Mickey” de Bruin again got the start on the hill. After Micky made an error on the first hitter, he let that upset his rhythm and allowed a few hits to end the first inning with Battswood replying with 3 runs. Was this going to be a tight ballgame?? The hitters had other ideas and smashed the Battswood pitching, scoring 5 runs to go 9-3 up. Mickey then settled beautifully and kept Battswood scoreless for the next two innings while the Macaws scored row more. By the end of the fourth inning the Macaws led 11-4 and Mickey was replaced by Promise Khamula. Over the past two games Promise had been very shaky, not trusting his stuff. This time, though, he seemed a little more focused and, after giving up one run, shut the Battswood hitters down. The Macaws hitters continued their onslaught scoring 4 more runs to eventually win 15-5.

Mickey threw 57 pitches in four completed innings which was brilliant.
Promise threw 14 pitches in one inning to close out the game.

Best hitters were Jemaile Mohamed 4-4,2x2B), Josh November (3-4) and Josh Smith (1-3).

Good performance from the pitchers laid the foundation for this win.

We keep on rolling!

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Macaws u15’s walk it off against A’s

The young Macaws were back at Chukker Road to host Athlone A’s, their southern suburbs rivals, who have been strong this year so far.
This young team have become resilient and do not get affected if their better players are not available to play. They just move on and the next player tries to take their opportunity.

MIkhaeel “Mickey” de Bruin got the start this week and was opposed by A’s ace Uzair Taliep. Both pitchers struggled with pitch counts in the first inning with Mickey racking up 39 pitches while conceding 5 runs. That one inning was all he saw as Promise Khamula replaced him at the beginning of the second inning. For a second time in two games Promise struggled with his control and was replaced after three hitters by Josh November.

By this stage A’s had a healthy 6-1 lead, but this Macaws team knows that the game is never over unless they quit, which they do not. Steadily chipping away at the A’s lead while November kept A’s scoreless, the Macaws found themselves 7-5 down at the beginning of the last inning when Jaime Brookes replaces November. Jaime mowed down the A’s lineup facing three hitters, striking all out in 10 pitches.

Now it was up to the hitters to do their job! Fortunately the top order was up and A’s were down to their third pitcher by this stage. Leadoff Jermaine Mohamed got on with a walk followed by Josh November with a second walk. Two stolen bases put them in scoring position and Brookes then smashed one to the outfield scoring both and tying the game. Now it was Josh Smith’s turn to be a hero and duly responded scoring Brookes to walk it off in dramatic fashion against a disappointed A’s who saw this one slip away.

Best hitters were Jaime (3-3,BB,2B), Josh November (1-2, 2BB’s), Josh Smith (2-3, BB) and Promise (1-3).

Great character from the Macaws while having two players on the injured list (Nur Scelo and Jared Riffel) and then losing a third during the game to a school appointment (Mickey), but that just gave u12 player Caleb Bell an opportunity to play more than half the game.

We keep on rolling!

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Macaws u15’s continue rolling against Yankees

Macaws u15’s continue rolling against Yankees

The young Macaws were back on the road, this time to Mitchell’s Plain to face westridge yankees. The young Macaws showed their intentions by scoring 4 runs in the first inning with Josh Smith (double) and Lee Adams (triple) leading the charge. Young Mikhaeel de Bruin got the start and, after giving up a leadoff walk, he mowed down the next three to finish the inning quickly. In the second inning the Macaws benefitted from a struggling Yankees pitches and scored 5 more runs from 5 walks and a couple of hits.

Micky continued where he left off and was one out away from another scoreless inning when and fly ball error allowed Yankees to score a run. Instead of being out of the inning Micky was replaced due to reaching his pitch count limit as set before the game. Josh November came on to strike out the third hitter in 3 pitches.

Yankees brought on a lefty young girl who did well initially by keeping the Macaws scoreless for two innings. However in the 5th inning, on two outs, the Macaws found their rhythm and had four hits in a row to score 3 runs, taking their tally to 12 runs.

November easily dispatched of three Yankees hitters to finish the game 12-1 in VOB’s favour.

Lots of lessons for the young Macaws again, but lovely to learn while you are winning.

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Masters keep their mojo

We started with Glen on the mound and as most of the times, he looked good. The problem is, he’s batting is not looking the same at the moment. I think for this season he’s bat has more kisses that actual hits. Overs played right field again and to all our surprise looked very good. No errors, and didn’t look uncomfortable at all.

Only because not one ball was hit to rightfield. Alghamdurilah. Charlie hit a gorgeous homerun and looked very sharp at shorts top. Yusuf had bases loaded and hit an absolutely fantastic linedrive, about 2 metres short of the fence which would have been his first grandslam.However it did clear the bases and turned out to be a three base hit.

Overs had the same opportunity, but looked no where near. Adam made a welcome comeback in his first game with 2 at bat’s and 2 strike outs. He was the first and the third out in one inning.Welcome back Adam. He even made Glen look good. We could have had a shutout, but Glen dropped a routine flyball as he got a hectic kak out session from the coach. Somma on the field infront of everyone.

I would have dealt with it slightly differently though. I would have taken him into the bushes and beat the crap out of him. I guess we all different. A lekka game with lekka laughs as always. This is why I still play baseball at the tender age of 49.Because I have team mates like these. Final score VOB 18-1 PIRATES.

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VOB u15’s take down unbeaten Crusaders in Grassy Park

The young Macaws were on the road to Grassy Park to take on the unbeaten crusaders team. As expected Crusaders started the game with the same pitcher as every other week so far. The Macaws started with Promise Khamula, only his second pitching stint ever.

Promise was very nervous and struggled to throw strikes but managed to complete the inning exceeding only 2 runs. Against the hard throwing crusaders pitcher the Macaws, even though they struck out to high swings, they did a great job of stretching the pitch count and by the end of the third inning the crusaders pitchers had already thrown 65 pitches. By this stage Promise has been replaced by Mikhaeel de Bruin, who battled hard and only allowed one further run.
At the start of the 4th inning Crusaders were ahead 3-0 when all sorts of drama took place with the Crusaders coach not wanting to follow new rules set by CTBF. After a prolonged stoppage it was decided that the game would continue without changes. Unfortunately for Crusaders their coach’s decision backfired badly as their next pitcher struggled badly. The Macaws then smelt blood and went for the kill scoring 5 runs. Crusaders managed to score two more runs before Josh November was brought on to close the game.
VOB scored 3 more runs in the 5th while November easily handled the Crusaders top order for a killer 8-5 come-from-behind win.

This young VOB team will get better and better as the season goes and it’s great to see young players eager to learn, train and play.

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32 – 12, Now what did the Masters do vs Bellville

Belville vs VOB. After the Springboks won the World Cup everybody arrived at the field in good spirit. Ooh, besides the few All Black supporters. And it showed in their game as well. First inning we went up by 15 runs as the guys went bos with the bat. Hadley was on pitching duty and was on point. Once again we had a full nine players on the bench and the coach started making changes somma in the first inning. And then I personally think the coach made a mistake in bringing on OVERS AND WEEDER. Weeder had two turns at bat, was struck out and picked off at first. That’s the first pick off we’ve had this season, and I think it may be the only one. Now Mr Overmeyer is another story. He got struck out twice, then was sent to the right field, then looked like he was in a slow motion movie when the ball was hit his way. Balls dropped around him which most under 10’s would catch. Unfortunately we had no more players to replace him so we had to watch this guy bat and field in absolute pain. It just looked mossag. Almost like the All Blacks exit in the World Cup. Bailey made his season debut and looked like he never left. Leading off the hitting and pulled off a bunt, that not even the All Blacks would have picked up. Game was played in good spirit, Overs and Weeder looked a bietjie backwards, but I’m sure they will come back.

Final score Belville 3-18 VOB.

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VOB u15’s continue their winning run against Silvertree

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.

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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.

No Comments 2019 10 19From the DugoutMajor League Reserve

10’s give it their all vs Oceanview 10-35

This past Saturday the 19th of October saw the VOB u10′ take on a very strong and big ocean view team. VOB u10 saw themselves missing a few key and strong players in their line up this weekend but many new comers and many young players stepped up and played very well. We do not look at the score line as a definition of the game but we look at how much fun the kids are having and how much they are actually learning about the game.

We saw many players stand out this weekend but we must give a special mention to Riley May who was outstanding at Shortstop and batted really well and Noah Rathner who was amazing at 1st base and batted really well in the lead off spot. This week also brought us twin boys aged four years old making their baseball debut. It is really heart warming to see young kids so interested in learning how to play this amazing sport. Overall we are seeing massive strides in our U10 team.

Special thanks to our umpires on the day Paul Bell and Marvin Mahoney as well as our scorer Zulfah Mosaval. Final score was VOB 14 Ocean View 35

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Slugfest at Goodwood – Masters win 26-13

Goodwood vs VOB.
Opening day and we somma started with a drama filled game. Yusuf Daniels looking very tired on the mound as Goodwood went off to a great start. Our guys were clearly a bit rusty as we somehow struggled to string together hits against their pitcher.

We were 12 – 5 down at one stage with the game almost done.And then the guys woke up and in the final inning we made it 12 – 12 and the game went into extra innings. We were 2 down and then out of nowhere the team that we all know came to play. Glen Joseph came on to replace Yusuf and did an excellent job at one stage and as the top hitter at the IPT, didn’t dissapointed.

The hits started flowing out of no where and when we looked again we scored 16 runs. And this all on two down. There were quite a few homeruns by our guys who finally decided to skrik wakker. By now Goodwoods hearts were broken and just like that we came back. A very stressful game as we woke up very late, but we showed our metal and coach Owen had so much to choose from on the bench, and that’s the difference between us and most teams. All and all a fun filled day with some seriously crazy people with never a dull moment. Oh ja, Wayne Repepi was also there.

No Comments 2019 10 19From the DugoutMasters