By Lance Jenkinson
Williamstown Wolves’ import pitcher Dennis Neal is a Giant-killer.
For the second time in a week, Neal left the Werribee Giants bamboozled to record wins in the Baseball Victoria summer league division 2.
Giants catcher Oliver Box could only tip his hat to Neal after he got the better of the Giants batters again in an 8-2 series-clinching win at Greenwich Reserve on Sunday.
“He’s definitely got the chips against us,” Box said.
“We struggled to get near him to be honest, so hopefully we don’t run into him again.
“Our bats were just not up to it and we couldn’t make any adjustments.
“He’s got a pretty nice curveball and a slider that was coming into us as well from a bit of a different angle we haven’t seen too much.”
It has been a shaky start to the new year for Werribee.
The Giants went into the mid-season break with a 14-1 record, appearing ready to pounce on any slip-up from top-of-the-ladder Cheltenham.
Since returning from the break, the Giants have one win from three matches against Williamstown, and look a bit off-kilter.
“We don’t seem to have a good match up against Williamstown,” Box said.
“They’ve put in a pretty good effort against us.”
It was not all bad for Werribee on Sunday.
The Giants only had one less hit (9-8) on the day, however their hits were sporadic.
The Wolves had big innings in the fourth (four runs) and the eighth (three) to blow out the game.
“We just couldn’t string the hits back-to-back in the batter’s box,” Box said.
“We had guys on and he threw a few walks as well, so I’d hate to know how many people we left on base.
“We just couldn’t get that big hit that we needed at the right time.”
There was also some solid pitching from Werribee starter Josh Lee and reliever Guillermo Salazar.
While the numbers don’t back it up, Lee pitched five innings to trail 5-1, while Salazar threw the final three innings for the concession of three runs. They were not well supported by their defence.
The Giants were tagged for four errors, which hampered the efforts of the pitchers.
“They weren’t big errors at big times, but they were kind of at the start of an inning that gave them a look-in and they used it to build from for the rest of the inning,” Box lamented.
The bright spot offensively for Werribee was Andrew Christou.
“He got an RBI single and then a big double, which kind of put us in a good position in the eighth, but we couldn’t convert again,” Box said.
“He was definitely the standout in the box.”
Werribee will try to recapture its form when it faces Doncaster Dragons in a three-game series starting on Thursday.
