Williamstown Wolves seem assured of promotion to the Baseball Victoria summer league division 1.
The Wolves missed out on elevation to the top flight last season because it did not meet the “junior requirement” of six teams and a minimum of 54 kids.
But with the club’s junior section thriving and first grade having secured the minor premiership and automatic promotion, it seems certain the Wolves will play in the best competition in Victorian baseball next season.
“We’re waiting for official confirmation from Baseball Victoria before we get too excited about it, but we have ticked all the boxes, so we’re pretty excited,” Wolves playing president Ryan Camov said.
“Our first goal this year was to qualify for division 1 and we’ve done that.
“Now we get to enjoy the finals and there’s no pressure on us to have to win to go up …but believe me, there’s not much more that we’re thinking about other than winning the whole series.”
The Wolves face Moorabbin in a best-of-three semi-final series starting tonight in Preston with games two (at Williamstown) and three (at Moorabbin, if required) to be played on Saturday and Sunday.
The sides will vie for the right to face Springvale or Werribee in the grand final series. In a strange coincidence, in last Saturday’s final round, the Wolves thrashed Moorabbin and Werribee did the same to Springvale.
With finals berths already locked up, the games were effectively dead rubbers, with each club choosing to approach them in a different manner.
Williamstown was happy to roll with its heavy artillery and take winning form into the finals.
The Wolves cantered to an 11-1 victory against Moorabbin.
Wolves coach Dean Marnell got at least two innings of pitching into David Asp, Josh Lee, Jason Lester and Nathan Rogers. On the batting side, Michael Pollock hit two doubles that scored two and three runs respectively to break the game open.
But the Wolves are not getting carried away with the result.
“In their defence, they rested their best pitchers and are gearing up for the midweek game,” Camov said.
“It was a great chance for us to roll out four of our pitchers today. And one through nine,
I think everyone had a hit. So it’s a good feeling to know that anyone in your squad is capable of coming up with the goods when you need it.
“We just wanted an opportunity to get some extra work into our guys.”
