Newport Rams are fine tuning things ahead of finals in the Baseball Victoria summer league women’s premier 1 first competition.
The Rams, who are the defending champions, will finish the regular season in second spot no matter the results in the last two games which will be both played this week.
Rams coach Dean Anglin said they were happy with how things were going.
“I think we’re in a pretty good position going into finals,” he said.
“We’ll finish the regular season in second. We’re in pretty good shape.”
The Rams were in action against Footscray on Saturday.
Anglin said they were wary of the Bulldogs who really stepped up this season and pushed sides in recent weeks.
He said their focus was to put a gap on them.
The Rams would come away with a 16-2 walk off win.
“The first innings was pretty quiet and so was the second,” he said. “In the third innings we broke open the game and added a couple more in the fourth.
“We didn’t need the fifth innings.”
Hiro Kinjo and Lara Watson finished with three runs each for the Rams.
Ashley Patton and Emi Saiki were the run scorers for the Bulldogs.
Anglin said with their finals spot already secure they had started looking ahead.
“We’re trying to protect players as we want to be in as strong as position as we can for finals,” he said.
“We’ve been sharing the duties around and not relying on individuals. We want to be fit and healthy.”
The Rams will face Springvale in the first week of finals.
Anglin said it was always a team that they watched closely.
“They’re the benchmark of the competition,” he said. “They’ve been at the top for a number of years and we’re still an evolving program and getting more depth.
“We’ve beaten them once this season so we have some confidence that we can do it.
“We had success against them last year, but it’s a different team so it’s completely irrelevant”
The Rams second side sits on top of the table and will play finals, while Anglin said a loss for their third side on Saturday likely ended its finals hopes.
He said overall the Rams women’s program has had a really strong season.
The Rams face Footscray on Wednesday again before finishing the regular season against Doncaster.
Footscray, which is fifth, will finish its season against Springvale on Saturday.
Meanwhile in the men’s premier 1 first nine competition, the Newport Rams lost to Geelong, 11-3.
Williamstown Wolves had a 9-2 win against Doncaster.
Earlier last week, Williamstown suffered a loss to Essendon on Tuesday night and Newport drew with Malvern 4-4.
After 22 games, the Rams sit in ninth spot and Williamstown in 10th.
There’s still six rounds remaining the season, with both sides in action on Tuesday night, after deadline.
