Werribee continued its strong start to the Vic Summer League baseball season on Sunday, running over the top of Malvern for a comfortable win.
While it took the Giants a few innings to find their hitting groove, they did enough in the back end of the game to claim a comfortable 9-2 win to remain on top of the division two table.
While Malvern held a 2-0 lead at the mid point of the match, Werribee coach Charles Thompson said he was never worried about losing the game to the ninth ranked hosts.
“We started off a bit slow, but the guys did exactly what needed to be done,” Thompson said. “Their pitcher wasn’t anything special so once we made some early adjustments they started to hit nicely and move the guys around to score, which is what we needed.”
Josh Lee started on the mound for the Giants and was steady throughout the day with seven strikeouts and two walks across seven innings.
Malvern grabbed two runs in the third inning but could not add to that throughout the rest of the match as the pitching and fielding from the visitors proved far too strong.
The star of the day for the Giants was catcher Oliver Box, who grabbed two doubles and a single from his three at bats, including hitting in one run for the Giants.
“He had a really good day for us,” Thompson said.
“Our bats are definitely on point at this stage of the season, and we really hope it can stay that way for the rest of the season.
“The thing with baseball is being able to make adjustments, and the guys are really tapped into how to make the adjustment whether it’s early or late in the game”
While it is still early days, Werribee sits atop the division two ladder and has no plans of relinquishing that spot over the summer.
“We should easily be in the top four, if not easily top two,” Thompson said.
“We have great depth in our pitching and a deep batting roster.
“It’s a credit to the boys with the way they train and prepare and that’s a real key to regularly winning baseball games.”
In the women’s match on Saturday, Werribee let a comfortable lead slip in the final two innings against Footscray to go down 14-9.
The Giants were up 9-1 after three innings, but let through nine runs in the fourth and four in the fifth, going down to the third-placed Dogs.
Werribee will this week host a Pink Day at the Werribee Baseball Diamond, with the club raising funds for breast cancer research.
