CASEY SOFTBALL
The first weekend of finals in the Casey Softball Association (CSA) did not disappoint with the Under-16 fully loaded preliminary final an absolute cracker.
Both Cobras U16D and Doveton Rebels started strongly with just one run in it heading towards the end of the game.
Rebels held strong and batted in eight runs in the finals innings to win a high scoring thriller 19-16.
Rebels now go into the grand final next Saturday against Cobras Maroon.
The Social Women’s first semi-final was a top-of-the-table clash between Berwick Geronimo (1) and Narre Warren Penguins (2).
Penguins batted first and came out all guns blazing, capitalising on Geronimo errors and were up 8-2 at the bottom of the second innings. Geronimo finally got its game going and scored eight runs to three in the next three innings.
But it was not quite enough to claw back the big lead…the Penguins winning 11-10.
The second semi-final was between Berwick Chickasaw and MVP.
Another exciting game saw Chickasaw start strong, going through their batting line up in the first innings, scoring 12-6.
MVPs called on all their experience to fight back but Chickasaw stayed strong to win 19-14 and put MVP out of this year’s finals race.
The second of the three-game Open Men’s final series between Cobras and Cranbourne was played out late on Saturday afternoon.
Both teams started pretty evenly, but Cobras switched into second gear and batted away.
Cobras ended up with a comfortable 20-9 win.
With a draw in the first game last week, it’s all set up for a thrilling decider this Saturday.
Open Women fully loaded was the last final of the day and saw the two Berwick teams – Cheyenne
and Comanche – play each other.
Comanche took the upper hand early with a 10-3 first innings advantage.
Cheyenne challenged but couldn’t hold off the strong batting Comanche, who won their way through to the grand final next week against Doveton Renegade with a 23-13 win.
The highlight of the day was the Casey Masters Invitational, under lights.
The game didn’t disappoint with lots of big hits, great fielding…as well as fielding errors, falls and strike outs, which gave us all lots of laughs.
Players were fined for being struck out, and dropping easy catches.
They could also pay to bat using a batting tee, and pay for a young player to run for you.
All of these fines were donated to the Good Friday Appeal.
The final score was Ethan’s Has-Beens 17 defeating Alex’s Relics 6.
Best on ground as voted by the umpires was Nigel Greer.
Sunday saw one more game with the Social Women playing off for a place in the Grand Final.
Again, two Berwick teams, Chickasaw and Geronimo, played each other.
Geronimo wasn’t going to start slowly two days in a row and had a healthy 14-7 lead after three innings.
Chickasaw showed some fight in the fourth innings but Geronimo were too strong winning 23-13.
Come along this Saturday for all of the grand finals with the Open Women to finish the day under
lights at 6.30pm.
-Joanne Haines-
