MARK’S WRAP UPS - WOMENS DIVISION 1 - ROUND 5

Division 1 Women 10NOV24

Woodville 1 @ South 10

Kensington 14 @ Glenelg 12

Adelaide 5 @ Sturt 10

In Division 1 Women’s Baseball, Woodville Senators headed down South to face the Hawks, Glenelg played host to the Kensington Cardinals and Sturt Saints hosted Adelaide Angels. The season’s reigning champion Sturt continues to sweep all before it with a complete offensive performance backed up by a miserly defense that does not give too much away. With all teams now having registered a win, competition at the other end of the table is becoming very interesting with any team capable of winning on the day depending on plate discipline and pitch control.

A big win last time around would have had Woodville supporters expectations high as they headed down to Southern Districts in a face off for second place on the ladder, but it was the Hawks that produced an emphatic performance led from the mound by Hawk star Sarah Short whose immaculate 5 innings gave up just 3 hits for no runs with just a single free base and ringing up 4 strikeouts to go with her hit, two walks and three runs when at the plate!! South’s plate discipline was exemplary extracting 12 free passes and a hit batter and the complementary hitting from Deb Hutchings, Mabel Parr-Gahan, Maddi Schmidt and Short rammed home their advantage to vault into second place behind the League leaders. Maddi Schmidt threw the final dig for the Hawks when the Senators were finally able to get on the scoreboard. Woodville’s three hits for the game came from Beth Lee, Alice Brown and Dakota Ding. Amara Quinn was the starting pitcher for the visitors and her 3.1 innings meant that she took the loss before being relieved for a final inning by Alice Brown.

In a wild affair at the Bay, the Kensington Cardinals were able to rack up their first win of the season despite being outhit 3 to 8 by Glenelg. Sophie Wells for Glenelg had 3 hits, Peyton Daniels 2 with single hits by Kylie Lok, Erin Harris and Rebecca Saville all combining to produce 11 RBIs, but still not sufficient to defend the 18 free passes (14 walks and 4 hit batters) issued by Glenelg’s pitching staff. Great plate discipline from the Cards offense saw Maddi Walpole draw 3 walks, Ruby Pfitzner 2, Ashalea Kautsky 2, Ella Tok 2, Bronwyn Ledgard 2 and Katlyn Brooks 2. Hannah Seal and Katlyn Brooks led the scoring by contributing 3 runs batted in to go with their hits and Elly Tucker also recording a hit. Tucker had a streaky trip to the mound giving up 9 runs from 7 walks, but Katlyn Brooks stepped in to save the day to record the Win. For the Bays, Rebecca Saville struggled to get out of the first inning conceding 5 runs on 7 walks and a hit batter before Jacqui Dunn stepped in. Peyton Daniels tried, alas in vain, recording the Loss (Pitching is a tough gig in baseball!!) on 2 innings, 5 runs on 3 walks and two hit batters. Plenty of work to do for Coach Handy, but a welcome win for Elly Tucker and her Kensington squad.

Sturt welcomed Adelaide to their Mitcham haven and showed once again just how hard it is going to be for any challenger to snatch the title from them. They present a complete offensive package with all but two batters recording at least one hit. Georgia Davis recorded 3 hits for 3 runs and 2 runs batted in to go alongside her two innings in relief of sister Lucy to record 2 innings for 2 hits and a run. In any discussion these are remarkable figures – rivalled this week by Sarah Short of Southern Districts. Back to the Saints offense and 2 hits to each of Bindy Stansfield, Elisa Gooley and Ellie Smith along with a handful of single hits meant that the offense managed 13 hits for 10 runs and 9 runs batted in whilst taking just the 3 walks and a hit batter. Impressive, but then add the defense led by the Davis sisters, Lucy starting this game and collecting the win on 3 innings for 3 hits and giving up 4 runs in recording 3 strikeouts before giving way to sister Georgia whose figures are quoted above. For the Angels, their offense was not silent with Reagan O’Rielly, Aleesha Mead, Mariah Kohu, Monica Majcen and Rebecca Murdoch all picking up hits and good plate discipline from Angela Mourtzios and Lily Dal-Corobbo drawing 2 walks. Alas the 8 free passes were not enough to catch the rampant Saints. Angela Mourtzios started for the Angels on the mound and went 4 innings giving up 12 hits for 9 runs and just the single free base. Sienna Thiele came on to record the final out before the game was called.

Stats for this week’s games

Sturt 10:  Hits (13) – G.Davis (3), Stansfield (2), Gooley (2), Smith (2), Ramsey, Collins, Keats, Wadham

Adelaide 5: Hits (5) – O’Rielly, Mead, Kohu, Majcen, Murdoch

Pitching: L.Davis (W), A.Mourtzios (L)

South 10: Hits (5) – Hutchings (2), Short, Parr-Gahan, Schmidt

Woodville 1: Hits (3) – Lee, A.Brown, Ding

Pitching: S.Short (W),  A.Quinn (L)

Kensington 14: Hits (3) – Tucker, Seal, Brooks

Glenelg 12: Hits (8) – Wells (3), Daniels (2), Lok, Harris, Saville

Pitching: K.Brooks (W), R.Saville (L)

League Ladder @ Round 5

Sturt 5 – 0 (10 points), South 3 – 1 (6 pts), Woodville 3 – 2 (6 pts), HG 1 – 3 (2 pts), Adelaide 1 – 3 (2 pts), Kensington 1 – 3 (2 pts), Glenelg 1 – 3 (2 pts)

By Mark McGarry