By Gavin Staindl
SPRINGVALE has gone down to Melbourne 5-2 but coach Mick Wearne said Sunday’s performance was “very encouraging”.
Melbourne leads the Division 2 ladder with 15 wins and one loss but the Lions, who were without four of their starting nine players, dug deep and had a chance to steal the win late in the day.
Trailing 5-2, Springvale managed to occupy bases with runners but missed out on the crucial RBI’s to tie the match.
Injured starting pitcher Scott Baillie struggled over three and a half innings, giving up four runs, but the pleasing thing for Wearne was his troops managed to stick with the league leaders all day.
Playing away for the first time this year, the Lions vastly improved on the previous meeting between the two teams where Melbourne romped home with a 10-4 victory in October.
“We’re in a better position than we were a few months ago. We’re more stable now,” Wearne said.
“We were more than competitive considering we were missing four from our opening line.”
Big hitters Lucas Price, Rob Novotny, Tim Handson and Australian representative Shae Lillywhite were all unavailable for Sunday’s game.
Despite the omissions, Springvale was still able to match it with the league-leaders.
“The hits between the two teams were fairly even and we had quite a few runners in scoring position that we couldn’t come through with a hit.
