NEWPORT Rams stole victory from the jaws of defeat over Werribee Giants on the road at President’s Park in the Baseball Victoria summer league division 2 on Sunday.
The Rams were below their best for much of the western suburbs derby, but managed to get their sixth consecutive win on the back of a whirlwind ninth inning rally to edge the contest 6-4 in a thriller. Rams assistant coach Gavin Young praised the never-give-in attitude of his ladder-leading side.
“We didn’t play our best game of baseball today,” he told the Weekly.
“We had our backs up against it for most of it. We stayed together, we stayed composed, we kept working at it and came through in the end.”
In stark contrast to the previous month, the Rams were a bit flat in both the pitching and batting departments. It did not help that young starting pitcher Griffin Weir was having a rare off day. He got dictated to by the hitters in his five innings.
“He wasn’t in command at all,” Young said. “Struggled all day.”
The call to the bullpen was made around the time when Rams star Matthew Lawman cleared the fence with a booming home run.
That highlight, combined with the introduction of in-form reliever Liam Vicary-Lovegrove, gave the Rams the unexpected boost they so desperately needed. “It got us going again,” Young said of the home run. “That’s the thing with someone of his calibre in the side, it lifts everyone.
“Once that happened, we had more belief in ourselves once again.”
The Rams would arrive at the top of the ninth staring at a 4-3 deficit.
Giants coach Earl Byrne went against the grain, asking his young starter Chris Webb to go around once more instead of calling in closer Wes De Jong out of the bullpen.
Byrne would live to regret the decision. “I was kicking myself for not making the pitching change,” he said.
A weary Webb walked Rams catcher Tyson Foreman.
Webb’s first out of the inning would be a sacrifice bunt from Weir. Webb then walked Zac Seipolt, before Vicary-Lovegrove became the third bat to get on with base on balls. With bases loaded, the call finally came for De Jong to come into the fray, but he was handed a poisoned chalice.
De Jong could not contain the three-hit star Troy Malthouse, who bobbed up with a double to score two runs to give the Rams an unlikely lead. Dean Anglin grounded out to send another runner home and put the Rams two in front, a lead that was never breached.
The red-hot Williamstown Wolves have moved into outright second after a nail-biting 7-6 win over the Bonbeach Blue Jays on Sunday.
SUMMER LEAGUE
Division 2
Firsts: Werribee 4 Newport 6; Bonbeach 6 Williamstown 7
Seconds: Werribee 4 Newport 3; Bonbeach 5 Williamstown 12
Thirds: Werribee 4 Newport 13; Bonbeach 6 Williamstown 5
Fourths: Werribee 12 Newport 8; Bonbeach 10 Williamstown 1
Division 3
Firsts: Cheltenham 9 Footscray 12
Seconds: Cheltenham 9 Footscray 9
