By JARROD POTTER
DANDENONG Baseball Association claimed an emphatic 5-4 grand final win in the State Winter Baseball Championships in Geelong to claim the City Division title.
Players from across the association combined to help the DBA advance to the grand final with wins over Ringwood (8-3), City (7-3), Geelong (5-3), City (16-2) and a 5-5 draw with Geelong.
Its only loss in the round robin stage was going down 2-6 to Ringwood on Day 2 – leading to a third clash with Ringwood on Monday for the championship.
Playing the grand final on the Queen’s Birthday, Blake Cunningham pitched for his life as his superb eight-inning effort in the final limited Ringwood to just four runs.
In a back-and-forth match, Cain Bumpstead was the key hitter for Dandenong claiming a home run to level the scores before his single hit in the final innings brought home coach Mark Jones off second base to claim the championship.
“We’ve won it plenty of times before but it’s been a few years since we last did,” Jones said.
“Won it about four years ago in second division and its slowly been building since there.
“Ringwood has been the reigning champs for two to three years so it was extremely rewarding for myself, anyway, to see the guys go through the weekend the way they did and prepare themselves for every game and the way they came through in the end.”
Ben Laux was named DBA MVP, an award voted upon by opposition teams, while the coach also praised the efforts of Cunningham and Bumpstead for their exceptional final performances.
“Laux had an outstanding tournament with the bat and was most valuable player of our team and that was voted by the opposition,” Jones said.
“He was pretty much the stand out for the whole weekend for us.”
Jones thanked DBA executive member Chris Mayne and scorer Michelle Winther for their tireless help at the long-weekend event.
DBA SENIOR REPRESENTATIVES
Mark Jones (coach), Russell Anderton, Cain Bumpstead, Mitchell Bowen, Jon Ballantyne, Blake Cunningham, Kane Davidson, Scott Baillie, Will Keys, Ben Laux, Russell Ferguson, Geoff Holland, Nathan Huysmans, Josh Mulherin, Brayden McConkey, Robert Ciccarella and Grant Irving.
