Curve ball … Rory Meddick has been a star on the mound for Sunshine this season. 57923 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By Michael Esposito
SUNSHINE Baseball Club’s head coach Shaun Moore believes his side is capable of beating the standard bearer of Division 2, Melbourne.
The Eagles are sitting seventh on the ladder at the mid-season break, but a top two spot is well in their sights, and Moore is not aiming for anything less, although he conceded a minor premiership was probably out of reach.
“Obviously we want to try and push for second spot, it looks like Melbourne might have first spot wrapped up already,” he said.
“I think we’ve had a pretty good start. We’ve probably dropped a couple of games in which we would have been hoping for win. But we’re pretty happy where we’re sitting at the moment.”
Sunshine’s 4-2 loss to second-placed St Kilda on Sunday pushed the Eagles from fourth to seventh spot, and is exactly the type of challenge Sunshine needs to start rising to.
Moore’s plan was always to get Sunshine straight back into the top division after being demoted from Division 1 at the end of season 2009/10.
“The competition’s so even in Division 2. It’s anyone’s game. It’s going to be very interesting come finals time. After Christmas we really need to knuckle down and get a lot more wins on the board because we know it’s going to be pretty tight towards the end of the season.”
Moore commended his side’s pitching and fielding this year but called for an improvement in his side’s batting performances.
“We’ve had a few disappointing games with the bat, but in saying that we’ve had a lot of good games, and our defence is just fantastic,” he said. “Adam Irons and new pick-up Rory Meddick have done a fantastic job for us on the mound.”
“Rohan Brasher has been solid for us at short-stop. His ability hasn’t dropped off a bit. He’s still got what his got at the age of 30.”
Sunshine has the 11th best batting average this season (.233), while Melbourne is the competition’s best batting side with a .321 average.
On the pitching stats sheet, Sunshine is third in the earned runs average column, with Sunshine’s throwers conceding an average of 1.91 runs per nine innings. Third-placed St Kilda is the tightest pitching team, followed by Melbourne.
The Eagles can take some heart form the fact that it restricted Melbourne to just four runs when they played them in November, but failed to score a run against the top team.
“If we switch the bats on, there’s not doubt that we can beat them,” Moore said.
“Come finals time, especially with the bats on, there’s no doubt that we can get back in division one next year.
“We’re doing all the right things like moving the runners over, getting stolen bases, and putting the bunts down, it’s just lack of scoring runs, especially in the last few games, that have been a downfall for us. Everything else has been fine. It’s just been trying to get those runners in scoring positions so we can score runs, and getting those back-to-back hits to really break the game open.”
“I’m sure next year knowing that we’re going to be playing finals, the boys will come out fired up and ready to play.”
Sunshine will resume its season against Preston on 16 January.
