Lions hunt baseball crowns

By Stuart Teather
SPRINGVALE Lions Baseball Club will be a bit quiet this weekend with both senior sides taking a week off after securing places in their respective grand finals with wins on the weekend.
The men’s division-three clash with Berwick City came down to a pitching duel between Glen Richards and Jude Power.
The pair have been the standout pitchers in division-three all season and Power’s Berwick City has claimed the spoils in the past two matches between the teams – Richards was out for both – but on Sunday Richards and the Lions came out on top with a crushing 10-1 win.
As expected, runs were hard to come by early on with Richards and Power hitting the zone regularly.
A Berwick fielding error in the third frame saw the first run-through courtesy of a Matthew Pallant hit and then Power walked the next two batters leaving bases loaded.
Richards was next in to bat and he picked up his first of two hits for the day, a booming shot to the left-field fence that saw three runners home.
The four-run innings turned the tide of the game in Springvale’s favour and Power never recovered.
Richards picked up another RBI in the seventh – his fourth for the game – capping off a sensational day for the former Minor League player.
Lions’ coach Ben Bartlett was full of praise for his champion pitcher after the game.
“Full credit to Glenny Richards, he threw a great game,” he said.
“To hold a side like Berwick to one run – those guys can hit – that’s a great effort.”
In disappointing news for the club, Rob Hogan missed the clash with Berwick and will also miss the Grand Final with suspension, after receiving a two-match ban for dissent towards an umpire two weeks ago.
Despite the ban, Bartlett said Hogan was in good spirits.
“He’s not too upset about it, he’s pretty happy that we’re there,” he said.
“He’s no spring chicken, he’s played his fair share of grand finals over the years, so he’s just excited that we’re into it and hopefully we can win one.”
The Lady Lions are also into the grand final after cleaning up Doncaster 11-1 on Saturday.
A week earlier Doncaster knocked off the Lady Lions 15-2 in the final round of the regular season, but Springvale bounced back in resounding fashion in the semi-final.
The men will face either Berwick or Williamstown in the decider at Melbourne Ballpark in Altona on Saturday, 21 March, while the women will face Doncaster, Malvern or Port Melbourne at Malvern Baseball Club on the same day.