In one heads-up play, Chad Northcott showed why the Werribee Giants were so keen to allocate a spot to the import this season.
The 24-year-old Canadian drew on every bit of his experience to make a decisive move with the game on the line to secure a thrilling 5-4 win over the Berwick City Cougars in the Baseball Victoria summer league division 2 at President’s Park on Saturday.
With two outs and trailing by a run in the ninth, the Cougars had the game-tying runner on first and the go-ahead batter on board, but the base-runner made a fatal error of drifting too far off the bag and a quick-thinking Northcott issued a pick off at first for the instant kill.
“I’m not sure what the base-runner was doing, but he was quite a fair way off the base; we picked him off and the game was over,” Giants coach Phil Balzer told the Weekly.
The Giants had to stave off a late challenge after leading for most of the game.
Their three-run advantage was in danger with the persistent Cougars chipping away with runs in the seventh and ninth.
But the Giants, who improved to 2-1 with back-to-back wins after their horror start, held on to inflict the Cougars’ first defeat of the season. “It was a big challenge and in a tight game we held on strong,” Balzer said.
The Giants were on the wrong end of the hit count – 12 to seven – but made up for it with a superior pitch selection. They received a massive eight walks for the game because of their willingness to wait for the right pitch. “They worked the counts well,” Balzer said.
Shortstop Wade Balzer had a day out. Sizzling in the field and confident at bat, Balzer finished with two hits, two walks and three RBIs. He has been a driving force of the Giants’ defence, which has been error-free over two games after an opening-day disaster.
“We’re pretty solid; our defence has tightened up so much,” Phil Balzer said. “In that first game, we made a heap of errors and we haven’t made even one since.”
Young starting pitcher Wes De Jong struggled for command but reached his pitch limit with the concession of just two runs in four innings.
“He wasn’t as sharp as he was the previous week but he battled through,” Balzer said. “Conceding two runs against a team that
had been undefeated and was scoring an average of nine runs a game, it was a pretty good effort.”
Northcott was solid closing out the game.
The Giants face the defending champion Williamstown Wolves in a western derby at Greenwich Reserve on Saturday.
Balzer said there might be no tougher opponent for his side to face this season.
“Williamstown will probably be the team to beat,” he said.
