The grand final experience for Footscray Baseball Club women’s division 3 coach Tony Culph and his wife and star player Janine was a strange one.
In agreeing to coach, Culph warned the club that he and Janine would not be available for grand final day should the Bulldogs reach the season decider.
“I told them when the fixture came out that there would be one game I’d miss all year and that’s the grand final if we made it,” Culph said. “My wife’s son got married in Sydney on that day, so even she had to miss it.”
The Culphs understandably had their mobile phones switched off during the wedding ceremony.
It was only when the wedding photos were being taken that Culph decided to find out the score – and he rode the game all the way to the finish, albeit from Sydney.
“I texted someone and found out it was the top of the fifth and we were in front 4-2 and kept in contact a bit until they won,” Culph said. “That made the beer at the wedding taste sweeter, so it was good.”
Footscray went on to beat Moorabbin 7-4, atoning for its loss to the same team in week one of the finals.
The Bulldogs needed someone to step up with the bat in Janine Culph’s absence and it was Emma Lowe who took on that responsibility.
“Janine bats two and she had an on-base average of over .800, so you’re taking someone out who gets on base all the time,” Tony said. “I moved Emma Lowe up the list to bat at two and she got three hits, scored twice and got a couple of RBIs.”
If a most valuable player award had been given out in the grand final, it would have gone to Footscray pitcher and playing president Lynn Fraser. She had one of her worst outings of the season against Moorabbin earlier in the finals, but she was scintillating on the mound in the grand final.
“Lynn has hardly walked anyone all year, but she walked eight in that game [earlier in the finals], and they just smashed the ball,” Culph said. “In the grand final, she didn’t walk any, pitched a lot better and shut them right back. She threw 24 balls and 76 strikes. One inning she sent down eight pitches and they were all strikes.”
The Footscray summer was mostly positive.
The Bulldogs reached the women’s division 1 grand final, which they lost 11-4 to a star-studded Springvale that made it six premierships in a row.
Footscray won a men’s premiership, eclipsing Essendon 10-8 in a thrilling division 4 north-west grand final.
The Bulldogs had plenty of individual success with Abbey McLellan taking out the division 1 women’s batting and home run awards.
They will also have a number of state representatives with McLellan to be joined by Amanda Asay and Britt Cedelland in the Victorian Blue team and Angela Youens, Kirsten Buzzing, Eva Gottschling, Alanna Kappler and Marita Taylor in the Tony Culph-coached Victorian White team.
Lance Jenkinson
