Werribee’s disappearing act in the third and deciding game of the Baseball Victoria summer league division 2 semi-final series with Springvale Lions will remain an unsolved mystery.
The Giants will be haunted by the concession of 13 first-inning runs that led to a 25-6 game-three loss at KH Wearne Reserve on Sunday.
Giants coach Phil Balzer was shocked by the manner of his young team’s defeat.
“There’s just no way of seeing that it was going to happen,” he said. “You couldn’t predict it.”
The Giants’ pitching had been a strength all season. The pitchers brought the goods in games one and two, giving up two runs in a combined 21 innings.
The Giants took game one at the Melbourne Ball Park on the back of young starter Wes De Jong and it took the Lions a combined 12 innings of pitching from Jonathan Lowe and Chad Northcott to square the ledger in game two at Presidents Park.
There was confidence in the Giants’ camp when De Jong took to the mound for the start of game three.
But De Jong never settled, giving up 11 runs on two outs before Balzer was forced to go to the bullpen.
For De Jong, it was an outing that in no way represented his season as a whole.
“Wes has been good all year,” Balzer said. “He hasn’t been that far off at any stage and it’s certainly not something we expected to see today.
“He was pretty distraught, but he’ll be right; he’ll learn from it.”
The rot set in early and the Giants never recovered. Three relief pitchers – Daine Gregory, Lowe and Wade Balzer – could not arrest the slide.
“Our pitching has been our strength all year, so when that falls away, we’ve got nothing to respond with,” Balzer said.
“We’re not a big hitting team, we don’t score a lot of runs … not many teams come back after a 13-run first inning.”
Oliver Box provided a rare highlight for the Giants with a three-run triple, while Simon Riches picked up two hits.
The Giants will be on the lookout for a new coach after Balzer said “it’s unlikely” he will be back next summer. He took on a one-year deal as a stop-gap measure so the club could potentially find its next long-term coach.
“I’m glad I did it,” Balzer said. “They’re a good group of guys, they’re really genuine and it was a pleasure to coach them. If the club can pick up one or two players as well as a coach, they should be really strong next year.”
