Tara Murray
While it was a disappointing end to the Baseball Victoria summer league season for the Williamstown Wolves, they will take plenty of positives out of the season.
The Wolves senior men’s team fell just short in its quest for the division 2 title, losing the best of three grand final series, to local rival the Newport Rams.
Wolves Daniel Chircop said the difference in the three game series was they didn’t look after the ball well enough.
“It’s disappointing to lose,” he said. “We thought we had the team on paper do it, especially in a three game series.
“We thought we had the pitching depth, but we didn’t take care of the ball.”
The Wolves lost the first game 7-4, before bouncing back with a 17-9 win in game two.
After aggressive professional performance in the box and a strong pitching performance from Dennis Neal, Chircop said they were full of confidence for game three.
Game three would be a pitchers game. The Rams were able to hit the scoreboard late to win, 4-0 and claim the series.
Chircop said they tipped their hat to Rams pitcher David Tongue.
“He threw 115 pitches on Thursday night and did the same thing on Sunday,” he said.
“It was just amazing. He’s a really nice guy and great for baseball.”
While still hurting after the loss, Chircop said overall there had been a lot of positives across the whole club.
“We recruited the right people, not just the right players,” he said.
“The standard of training, the way we apply ourselves and what we are doing in taking a more serious approach when preparing, are all positives.”
Chircop, who coached the club’s women’s side, said they would look to grow that program next season after setting it up this season.
And he said the juniors were in a good place for a bright future at the club.
“We have a huge base of 16-18 year olds,” he said. “For guys like myself it’s nice to see players coming through that can take our sports.
“We’re in good hands for the future.”
