Cheltenham Blue 0 vs Footscray 17
Denise Healy reports
Am I the only one who thought the highlight of the game was when Mr Whippy came along playing his tune? No, just me? For a moment I was transported away from getting whipped by the batting line-up to childhood memories of hearing the Mr Whippy van coming up the road, running into the house to beg for some coins and then racing back to order my soft-serve from a grumpy and weird looking Mr Whippy before he took off – never to be seen again.
But I digress.
OK, like ripping off a bandaid, I need to get the pain over quickly. We lost 17-0. It felt like we were fielding for hours and hours and hours on end. No sooner did we get into the dug-out, when we were back on our feet running out to field again.
Such negative-speak is not cool (very un-PC in fact), so let’s focus on the positives. This is what’s great about the team, we are really supportive of each other and have a great time each Saturday afternoon, why else would we do it?
No more negative Nellie. Sam and Tara were freaking brave pitching warriors – leading our team into battle without our regular pitches, Sue and Barb, who were probably loving themselves sick somewhere far-far-away from Foot-as-gray (well it was actually trendy Kingsville apparently but Footscray sounds better). We forgive you, and please come back this week. Please.
In all seriousness, it was really good practice for Sam and Tara, it was a bloody tough gig they were handed and they did an amazing job.
Also amazing was catcher Jess who took pitch after pitch, chasing down every ball. It was a gruelling gig and her efforts did not go unnoticed. Great work Jess – just think of the benefit of all those squats #bunsofsteel.
There was quite a bit action in both the infield and outfield this week. We had Jess’ mate Jess helping out today at third base. Tara took two great catches at short-stop which helped stem the runs. Unfortunately there wasn’t too much that could be done in the outfield when a few massive hits sailed over the head of Mardi in left-field and one past Denise in centre-field. Let’s just say that we got quite a cardio-workout that day. Good for the Fitbits!
In the outfield, Caroline stopped a massive hit from getting past her in right-field. The groundball had some speed on it, but Caroline fielded brilliantly and threw it back in to stop the runner from getting to second.
Pia was on fire running around the bases. She ran around from second to third and then made the split-second decision to head on home. It was touch and go for a second but unfortunately Pia was called out. So close but yet so far.
In the batting box, Sam smashed a great hit into centre-field, which saw her safely arrive at first but unfortunately for Mardi, who was forced to run to second, was out. Not quite fair as Mardi had taken a body-blow to get on base.
Michelle got some swinging practice in while in the batting box with at least six fouls recorded.
Quote of the day came from Carolyn’s loyal and supportive husband who had travelled to the “other-side” to watch his very first game of baseball, EVER. While we were consoling ourselves with such a big loss, Phil announced (in a lovely English accent so it has more authority), “But you came second!”
Now that’s the Rustlers spirit!
