Last weekend saw the Pakenham Pumas take out the Latrobe Valley Gippsland Cup.
This is a round robin pre-season winter competition, which was hosted this year by the Morwell and Moe baseball clubs.
The invitation is open to all Victorian baseball clubs to attend and fight it out at the Gippy Champs.
Game 1 started at 9:15am on Saturday 27 March in constant drizzling rain. Up against Dingley, the Pumas had a good consistent start with a 6-4 win. A massive home run to Scott Dale had the Pumas on their feet.
Game 2 was against Sale. In a very tight game with 1-1 all in the third, Sale hit two more in the fourth. There was an amazing double play by the Pumas with Shane Evans to Luis Mayo for an out who then threw to Travis Hough to get another out. Pakenham scored one more in the fifth but ultimately lost that one 2-3.
Game 3 was against Morwell, which was a fantastic 13-4 win to the Pumas. A huge first innings saw a comprehensive win. Congrats to Shaun Fahy who scored three runs for the game.
Game 4 was the last game for the Saturday, up against Dingley again. A great double hit to Danny Cannizzaro led to a double RBI and brought us equal to Dingley at 3-3. Pumas then piled on the runs with some strategic and patient batting to win 11-3.
Sunday 28 March started with much better weather that the day before.
Game 1 was against Churchill, and wow, what an outstanding pitching display by Trent Jobs with seven strikeouts and only 77 pitches in five innings. Thebatters also had fun on the diamond with a huge HR each to both Scott Dale (again) and Mitch Lording. Pakenham had a dominant 5-0 win.
Game 2 was against Dingley again. Pumas were confident having beaten Dingley twice the day before. Another impressive pitching display, this time by Scott Dale saw a 10-1 win to Pumas, putting them into the grand final against Sale.
In the grand final, you could sense the pressure go up a notch with the Premiership flag up for grabs. Pumas were classed as the away team as Sale had better winning margins from the round robin so took the home team advantage. No score in the first innings, but Pumas looked the better of the batting teams at the start.
Pumas were able to put on three runs in the second and another three in the third, really putting the pressure on Sale who remained scoreless with Trent Job again being impressive with four strikeouts in the three innings and only 10 batters up to the plate.
The three runs in the second innings were courtesy of a sensational home run to Shaun Fahy and single runs to Dan Taylor and Matt Keoylian, brought home by a Tristan Hill double. In the third innings the runs were attributed to Mitch Lording, Shane Evans and Dan Taylor.
The fourth innings saw a whopping home run to Danny Cannizzaro bringing the Puma tally to seven and Sale still scoreless. This certainly put pressure on the Sale team.
In the fifth Sale finally got onto the board, but with continued great pitching and fielding pressure that was to be their only score. Pumas finished off with two more runs in the eight innings to come out as premiers of the Latrobe Valley Gippsland Championship 9-1, the first since 2014.
Congratulations to the Pumas team: Mitch Lording, Shaun Fahy, Danny Cannizzaro, Mitch Lording Scott Dale, Shane Evans, Dan Taylor, Tristan Hill, Matt Keoylian, Trent Job, Travis Hough, Luis Mayo, Sebastian Mayo-Castro, Matt Mills, Felicity Clissold, Ethan Hamilton, Jamie Coloma, Michael Faust and Jarrad Bell.
