The monkey is off the back for the Werribee Giants with the claiming of the Baseball Victoria summer league women’s division 2 title.
The Giants beat their bogey side, Waverley, twice in the finals.
They won convincingly 10-3 in the semi-final, earned a week’s break and repeated the dose with a 6-2 grand final win.
Giants coach Tony Culph lauded a tale of persistence.
“It’s taken a few years, a lot of hard work and training to get there,” he said. “We’ve played in a few finals and finally got the big reward.”
The Giants were superbly led by young pitcher Emma Pastowski.
The one-time Victorian representative did the bulk of the work on the mound this season, sending down 65 of a possible 75 innings.
Most of her work was spot on, with 110 strikeouts and only 12 walks.
After giving up a run in the first inning in the grand final, Pastowski kept it tight until the sixth inning when Waverley posted a late, inconsequential run.
“She came to us from Melton as a young pitcher five years ago and she’s still got a bit [of improvement] to go,” Culph said. “She throws hard and pretty straight, and she’s got a good curve as well.”
The Giants’ success was reliant on their bats getting enough run production against Waverley ace Terina Stokes, who has represented Australia at the World Cup.
Stokes has long been a thorn in the side of opposition batting line-ups, but not on this occasion. The Giants put up a four-run third inning on hits to Crystal Mollica, Marita Wyatt, Janina Culph, Jess Curnow, Pastowski and Tiffany Mollica to bust the game open.
The Giants will be promoted to division 1 next season and are desperate to bolster their ranks.
“That’s going to be a big step for us,” Culph said.
“If there’s any girls and women from around 15 and older who have sporting ability and want to have a crack at baseball, we want them to join the club.”
