Williamstown Wolves clinched back-to-back Baseball Victoria summer league division 2 premierships with an 18-4 mercy rule drubbing of Springvale Lions in game three at the Melbourne Ball Park in Altona on Sunday.
But the lopsided score line belied the evenness of the series over three games.
The Wolves were far and away the best side in the regular season.
They claimed the minor premiership weeks out from the finals, were the first to be promoted to division 1 and were comfortable semi-final winners.
PICTURE GALLERY: Williamstown v Springvale, game one
RELATED: The decider
But it was a whole different story in a grand final showdown that had fans on the edges of their seats.
Even Wolves playing president Ryan Camov struggled to handle the pressure at times.
In Wednesday night’s tension-filled 9-8 game-one win, Camov coughed up the lead as pitcher at the top of the eighth inning and got it back at the bottom of that inning to gain an early lead in the series.
“It was a heart stopper, a real emotional rollercoaster,” he said.
“I felt physically ill at the end of that game and it took me a good half hour to come back down to earth.
“It’s a great thing about baseball – there’s lots of opportunities for redemption.
“I was pretty devastated at giving up the go-ahead runs … we got lucky with Nathan [Rogers] and Darren [Pollock] getting on base and getting bunts down, giving us a chance to win it with the bat.”
The Lions got their own piece of redemption by hitting back to take game two 9-5 on Saturday.
Wolves import Russell Moldenhauer cleared the fence to give the Wolves a one-run advantage in the second inning.
Veteran pitcher David Asp made a promising start on the mound for the Wolves until the Lions rallied with four runs in the third. Asp refused to let the big inning rattle him, staying in the game until a dramatic ninth inning and holding the Lions scoreless in that time.
After his side had chipped away at the deficit, the scene was set for Camov, the villain-turn-hero of game one, to play the hero card again.
He got the crucial hit to take the game to extra innings.
A third and deciding game became inevitable after Lions star Freddie Flores scored on a broken-bat hit from Lucas Price and the Lions put up four more.
“We had two very close to and fro games,” Camov said. “It was a great series, great to be part of.”
The Wolves celebrated into the early hours of Monday morning at their annual presentation night.
They are enjoying the rare distinction of back-to-back premierships after being denied promotion by Baseball Victoria for 12 months for not meeting junior requirements.
That will not be a problem this time around – the Wolves will go up to Victorian baseball’s top echelon with Springvale.
