In an ominous sign for the rest of the league, Williamstown Wolves are starting to turn the corner in division 2 of the Baseball Victoria summer league.
The Wolves are working hard to put a rough start to the season behind them and have picked up consecutive wins to knock on the door of the top four.
They showed a steely resolve to edge out Upwey-Ferntree Gully 4-3 at Greenwich Reserve on Sunday, which followed on from their upset six-run win over contenders Werribee Giants eight days earlier.
Wolves first-year player-coach Kile Rogers told
Star Weekly a heavy loss to Malvern four rounds ago forced his side to take a long look in the mirror.
“It’s not where we want to be,” he said of the Wolves’ current fifth position. “We’ve had a couple of bad losses and then against Malvern, who came down from division 1, we took it a bit too easy and ended up losing 13-4.
“We sort of had a look at ourselves after that and we don’t envision staying where we are.”
Relegated from division 1 at the end of last summer, the Wolves were tipped to be one of the leading teams this season. But it has been a difficult team to get a read on as an inconsistent start has become a 4-4 record.
“It’s been a tale of two different teams,” Rogers said. “We’ve had the one who can switch it on and do everything right, play impeccable defence, our pitchers attack the zone and our hitters are able to get the job done.
“Then we’ve had other games where we’ve been the complete opposite. So we’ve either got it all or we haven’t got any of it.”
The most reliable players on the Williamstown roster have been pitchers Jason Lester and David Asp.
But the seasoned campaigners can only do so much from the mound and need better assistance from their fielders.
“We haven’t looked after our pitchers enough in the field and they’ve copped a little bit of that,” Rogers said.
There is no hiding either from the fact that the Wolves’ batting has not been adequate. They got hot for nine runs against Werribee, but otherwise it has been a huge letdown.
“We’ve looked at the stats and we’ve struggled in the batters box,” Rogers said. “That’s what’s been hurting us.”
But there are exceptions, with Aaron Green, Jason McDonald and new recruit Justin Gourlay all batting over 300.
The Wolves might have taken division 2 for granted when they dropped down a level.
The time for adjustment is over and results in the run-in to Christmas must be on the winning side of the equation.
“You always have that target on your back when you come down from division 1,” Rogers said. “We know everyone is gunning for us and we’re not sitting idle in that regard.
“We really want to show people we’re still a division 1 club and we want to get back to that point. Every game up until Christmas will be crucial for us.”
The Wolves travel across the West Gate Bridge to face Rogers’ former club Port Melbourne on Sunday.
In division 1, Newport Rams caused a boilover in beating Waverley 4-3 on their home diamond. The Rams will play host to Doncaster at KC White Reserve on Sunday.
