|
Southampton, June 20th, 2004. This was not the performance that the Mavericks had been hoping for or expecting, on the back of improved recent performances, although that said, for once this season, Guildford went into the game with a squad of only 10. All the more surprising when one considers that apart from the long trip to Cheddar next week, there will be over a month before the next regular season game. A portent of things to come was probably the fact that only a third of the team had shown up by 45 minutes before the game, due to the fact that most had not travelled to Southampton's ground before, or had forgotten that like any good maze, the diamond is very visible, but very hard to actually get to! This was then mirrored in the game when most of the players seemed to forget to bring their bats, and even more strangely, got worse as the game wore on. With Rob Shaw and
Michael Burdett leading off the game for the Mavericks with back to back
singles, Tomas Diaz was able to give Guildford the lead on RBI ground
out.
Strangely enough, it was the bottom of the Southampton order that was the thorn in the Mavericks side all day, as the bottom 4 scored 10 of their 14 runs. They were also pretty adept at taking extra bases of the Maverick battery of Pennington and Armstead, as Guildford were unable to stop the Mustangs running game. Although the Mavericks took the lead again in the top of the second on Heather's RBI single that scored Ross, Southampton posted 3 runs on the board in both the second and third innings, without really troubling the Maverick outfield. This was as good as it got for the Mavericks. Despite Gavin Tunnells remarkable juggling catch in Left Field, and Heather proving a good contact hitter at the plate, the Mavericks never really troubled the Mustangs until the 6th inning, when Tomas and Ross combined to score the third run of the day. However the Mustangs came back with another 3 in the bottom half of the inning, after which Guildford never really looked like stretching the game beyond 7 innings. This is where the Slaughter rule looks out of place, as although this was one instance where the 10 run deficit did not look in too much danger, so was no reason to curtail the game, as it had still only taken a shade over 2 hours. Guildford's problem on
the day was far too many strike outs, against good but not over bearing
pitching, too many walks, and an inability to stop the running game. But
it has to be said, that almost all games are generally won by the side
performing the basics best, and on today's showing Southampton were much
better in that department.
The first win of the season will come, but unfortunately this week was a step backwards Maverick MVP: Rob Shaw |
However
with Duncan Phillipo and Jamie Barnett going down on strikes, the
Mavericks failed to add to this score. The Mustangs replied with one of
their own in the bottom of the inning, but were at least connecting off
Maverick Starter Ross Pennington, as two infield pop-ups and a fly ball
to Rob Wheeler in CF accounted for the 3 outs.
Hard
to pick a Guildford MVP for the day, although Rob Shaw on the fact that
he always put the ball in play, showed the rest of the team that hitting
is not just about Home Runs, but about making contact.
