By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE Werribee Giants will go into the Division Two Summer League Baseball post-season with winning form after toppling Springvale 10-2 at home on Saturday.
The Giants finished third on the table to qualify for the finals and will again face Springvale in a best-of-three sudden death semi final series – set to begin this Wednesday evening.
While Werribee coach Phil Balzer admits Springvale – who had already secured a finals berth – didn’t quite bring its A-game on Saturday, he said he was pleased to come away with a win after giving key pitcher Wes De Jong a spell.
“We didn’t pitch Wes and pitched some other guys because it was a good opportunity for them to get some innings under their belt – so it was a good win,” Balzer said.
“Jonathan Lowe started the game and pitched four innings, and I think he had a couple of hits, so he was very good for us, and he was followed by Jason Kriehn, who pitched two innings and did a good job, and I think he also had a hit for himself as well.
“Daine Gregory then came on and threw two innings and then Chad Northcott pitched the last inning, so it was a game where I wanted to get a lot of guys out there pitching in preparation for the finals and obviously the win helps.
“But the main thing for us was to be competitive and to get as many pitchers some work in as we could.”
Balzer expects Springvale to field a much stronger line-up than the one put up on Saturday, but is confident he has enough of his own weapons at his disposal that have shown good recent form.
“We’ve certainly got the pitching with Wes (De Jong) and Chad (Northcott) and then Wade (Balzer) and Jonathon Lowe, and hitting-wise Oliver Box has been tearing up the competition this side of Christmas, so expect him to keep doing that,” Balzer explained.
“And our top five, maybe six hitters going down to Matthew Howe are all hitting around .300 or higher, so that’s a pretty strong hitting line-up going down to our sixth hitting spot.
“Matthew Howe’s having an outstanding season, and he’s hitting about .350 or .370, so he’s playing extremely well and I’m definitely more confident (about beating Springvale) than I was before the weekend. That’s for sure.”
