Springvale playing coach Ben Bartlett continued his season-long hitting streak with a single in the Lions’ 14-4 win over Williamstown on Sunday.
By Paul Pickering
THE Springvale Lions issued yet another reminder of the gap between the best and the rest in Baseball Victoria’s Division Three men’s competition on Sunday, travelling to Williamstown to rout the second-placed Wolves 14-4.
The Lions – sitting atop the league with a 10-1 win-loss record – made their presence felt early, with Rob Hogan slugging the Wolves pitcher’s second set of the afternoon out of the park to establish a two-run advantage.
In response, though, Williamstown managed to peg one run back after an uncharacteristically wayward start from Springvale’s Glen Richards.
The lethal left-handed pitcher threw three walks in the bottom of the first inning before finding his range to deny the Wolves another score during the next five digs.
A four-run spree in the seventh brought Springvale within a clean innings of an early end to the match under the 10-run mercy rule.
And while a fielding error and resultant run sent the Lions out for another innings, relief pitcher Hogan took the mount to ice the match in the bottom of the eighth.
Hogan’s heroics with both bat and ball made him the stand-out for Springvale, while Rowan Hall (three hits) made the most of his promotion from the reserves and Matthew Hayle (two), Ben Bartlett, Rob Novotny, Matthew Greene, Michael Wearne and Glen Richards (one each) all found the mark during the afternoon.
The Lions will now finish 2007 with a clash against Footscray at Melbourne Ball Park tonight (Thursday).
Springvale’s Division One women’s match against Doncaster was washed out on Saturday afternoon.
