Tara Murray
The Werribee Giants are hoping an upset win against the Newport Rams will kick start their season in the Baseball Victoria summer league division 2.
In a big week which included matches against the Rams and another top five side Fitzroy, the Giants split the results.
Giants coach Andrew Christou said they were hoping the performances they had in the last week would help set up their season.
“We’re really happy,” he said. “On Thursday and Saturday we played against top five teams and to get one of those two games was really good.
“We spoke about it yesterday [Saturday] that we are now just out of playoffs at the moment and we need to keep putting wins on the board to get into playoffs and back into the top four.”
On Thursday night, the Giants lost 7-2 to Fitzroy.
Christou said they played some good baseball, but just weren’t able to capitalise.
“I thought we should have won that game,” he said. “We hit well but we didn’t make the most of it.
“It’s one of those things if you can’t take full advantage it can come back and hurt you.”
The Giants didn’t make the same mistake twice and it proved to be the difference on Saturday against the Rams.
The Giants came away with a 14-6 win.
Christou said they were really happy with that performance.
“We hit really well and took it to them,” he said. “We took an early lead and held on to it.
“It was a bit of a rivalry game being two western suburb teams, so there was a bit of spice in the game.
“It was windy towards the outfield so it was always going to be a high scoring game.
“To put 14 runs against one of the better teams in the competition, we’re pretty happy with that.”
The win moves the Giants to seventh, with a 5-4 record, with the side having played two less games than some other sides.
The Giants this week face St Kilda on Sunday at St Kilda.
The Giants women’s side also beat the Newport Rams on Saturday, winning 25-24.
The Giants sit in fourth spot.
Christou said for the club’s other men’s sides it had been a bit of a struggle this season.
“We have three reserves teams and they’ve only won one or two games each for the season,” he said.
“They’ve struggled a little bit, but we’re a very young club and there’s a lot of learning going on.
“We have a few older guys with younger guys in every team.
“It’s changing from one generation to another.”
