Liam Vicary-Lovegrove can get under the skin of opposition players with his banter during the course of a Baseball Victoria summer league division 1 game.
But the Newport Rams’ lead-off hitter let his bat do the talking on Sunday, starring with three RBIs from two hits in a 5-4 win over the Waverley Wildcats on the road at Napier Park.
Rams assistant coach Gavin Young expressed satisfaction with Vicary-Lovegrove’s approach.
“He’s not the most-liked player in the league because he’s very vocal, but he’s a guy who gets the job done,” Young said. “He’s a class player.”
The Rams are firing on all cylinders, having reeled off five consecutive wins to hold the equal-best record in the league with three other teams.
The pitching of Griffin Weir has a lot to do with the team’s success. Weir has not given up an earned run in his past three outings.
Since a rough first-up outing, Weir has bounced back to win three of his past four and has an impressive 1.82 ERA from 29 innings.
He lasted seven innings this outing, handing the bullpen a 5-2 lead.
Vicary-Lovegrove coughed up two runs in relief in the eighth, but import closer Eric Kline ensured there would be no fairytale comeback for the Wildcats.
Jordan Young was superb at shortstop, making a number of big plays.
It was another impressive team effort from the Rams – and a necessary one as they went in undermanned.
“It was more of a makeshift team that was able to stay strong through it,” Young said. “We came up with the hits at the right time and were defensively good. Griffin Weir did a great job just doing what he’s been doing.”
The Rams face Melbourne (4-3) in a blockbuster tonight in the early game at the Melbourne Ballpark in Altona from 6.30, and they back up on Sunday at home to Doncaster (4-3) at KC White Reserve.
Williamstown Wolves are licking their wounds after a 10-1 thrashing from Doncaster on the road on Saturday.
That result followed back-to-back losses to arch-rival Newport, leaving the Wolves with a disappointing 2-5 record after seven games.
The Wolves will be in action tonight at Altona in the late game against Waverley (1-6) from 8.50 before entertaining Blackburn (5-2) on Sunday.
The Melbourne Aces have lowered their colours to the Brisbane Bandits, losing three of their four games in the season-opening series in the Australian Baseball League at the Melbourne Ballpark.
The Aces went down in the opener 10-3 on Friday night when an incredible seven home runs – five to the Bandits and two to the Aces – were blasted out of the park.
The Aces bounced back in the Saturday twilight game to win 2-1 after an 11th inning walk-off home run from Brad Harman.
The rest of the series belonged to the visitors, with the Bandits taking game three 5-4 on Sunday and the special Schools Day game four 2-1 on Monday morning.
