Left:Springvale fourthspitcherRodney Arms helped guide the Lionsto an 8-5victory over Bonbeach and scored a run to showall-round prowess. 71376
By Jarrod Potter
HURT by the loss of starting pitcher Glen Richards to a broken hand, the undermanned Springvale Lions were thumped 11-1 in their loss to Bonbeach in Baseball Victoria’s Summer League Division Two competition.
Richards broke his hand on Saturday night after taking a fall, which added to the injury woes of Springvale who were forced to play five reserves players in the firsts.
“He broke his hand messing around after the football on Saturday,” coach Mick Wearne said.
“Took a fall and landed on his hand, so he’ll be out for a couple of weeks.”
Dominic Ramos, the Lions’ import player for the coming season, only flew into Melbourne at 5.30am on Sunday morning and still managed a couple of hits despite being jetlagged.
Wearne said the firsts scoreline wasn’t reflective of the game as a whole, due to the injury-ravaged roster they took into the match.
“We were unfortunately a bit undermanned,” Wearne said. “Glen Richards broke his hand on Saturday night, so we lost our starting pitcher before the game began.
“Dom (Ramos) got a couple of hits, and a couple of the reserves players who came in did alright, so we think the scoreline didn’t reflect the game.
As runs-for and runs-against aren’t used to determine ladder position, Wearne said the final margin wasn’t particularly devastating in the long run.
“The scoreline doesn’t matter that much, so it was a chance to give our pitchers a bit of a go,” Wearne said.
In the Division Two reserves, Springvale narrowly took the win, beating the Blue Jays 7-6.
The thirds had a win at home against Bonbeach 13-12 and the fourths made it three-from-four as the Lions comfortably defeated Bonbeach 8-5.
The Lions will face Berwick City this weekend, with the firsts and seconds playing at home and the thirds and fourths playing at Berwick, which Wearne thinks the Lions should be able to win.
“Hopefully we do reasonable well,” he said.
“Their import doesn’t come in until the week after next I think, so we’ll rate our chances against them.”
