SATURDAY promised to be a massive day for the Mitchell Majors, but it wasn’t to be as they went down to the Knox Falcons 7-2 in the preliminary final of the Melbourne Winter Baseball League’s A3 grade competition.
After conquering Footscray a week ago the Majors were again on the road, hunting another positive result that would put them through to the grand final against Greenhills Montmorency next Saturday.
A nervy start from both teams had the scores reading 0-0 after the first, and the visitors stayed scoreless in the second.
The Majors were unable to get a runner on base in either of their digs while the Knox batters forced star pitcher Lachlan Ruyter to throw 52 pitches, and scored two runs.
The third inning brought the first run of the game for the Majors through the in-form Will Gurnett, and was followed by a short 14-pitch inning by Ruyter which kept the ball rolling in his team’s favour.
Conditions were threatening throughout the day, and rain caused numerous stoppages at the midway point, which was right around the time that the matchup reached a breaking point.
With the scoreboard reading 2-1 in Knox’s favour at the start of the fourth inning, Ben Harkom singled to centre field, and then Tom Flannery followed up with a double to put two runners in scoring position with no one out.
But a base running error and then a pick off at first base sucked the energy out of the Majors’ dugout, and they were only able to level the scores when it seemed like they had a chance to take the game by the neck.
What followed was a five-run tirade from Knox, whose batters’ patience drew three walks to go along with four singles which proved the difference in the game.
In the end, the Majors simply couldn’t fire a shot back, managing just one runner on base in the final two innings of the game and never really looking like clawing the lead back.
A promising season for the local baseballers cut agonisingly short of a shot at the top prize.
