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Guildford,
May 2nd, 2004.
The Mustangs came into
Guildford for the first game of the season, their opener against
Bournemouth also having been washed out, as was the Mavericks game with
Windsor. They then proceeded to take their first win in Guildford,
winning by a 12 run margin in 8 innings. That said the main
difference between the two sides was the pitching.
Although Southampton
staked out an early 4-0 lead, the Mavericks pegged them back in the
bottom of the second on RBI's from Rob Shaw and Michael Burdett.
However, that was as good as it was to get.
It has to be said that the Southampton defence backed up their pitcher well. In particular the combination of Greenhalgh-Hairy-Johnson, fielded practically everything that came their way. Only Koichiro Furukawa showed any consistency for the Mavericks at the plate. The Mustangs took
advantage of a large number of walks, and added to their score with a
couple of runs in most innings, without ever blowing it open with the
big inning.
The Mavericks desperately need to improve on their hitting, although unlike last season, they are being out pitched by the opposition, so far. Maverick MVP: Koichiro Furukawa |
Mustangs starter,
Smith had the Mavericks on the back foot all day, giving up just two
runs in the second inning. In fact the Mavericks looked to have the
stronger batting line-up, but 22 walks tells the story of the game, and
Southampton were able to take advantage of this.
Too many strikeouts at
inopportune moments (is there ever a good time?), together with numerous
infield groundouts, meant the Mavericks were unable to put more than one
runner in scoring position in each inning.
With Ross Pennington given some time on the mound in the
8th, Southampton scored 3 times, to suddenly open up a 12 run lead, and
with the Mavericks going down with just a single hit in the bottom half
of the inning, the game suddenly ended under the slaughter rule,
although to be fair, it had been a very slow game, taking the best part
of 3 3/4 hours for the 8 innings.
