Last Saturday saw a tight grand final fought out in the A-reserves between Melbourne Uni and Doncaster, with the Dragons taking the win and the flag 5-3. After two scoreless innings Melbourne Uni opened their account with two runs crossing the plate in the third, which was quickly nullified by Doncaster plating two in the same dig. The Dragons then added three more runs in the fourth, while Uni fought back in the fifth adding one, but couldn’t add-on any further. Doncaster player and coach Tom Burgoine was ecstatic with his team’s victory. “The guys all played excellently,” he said, paying kudos to his pitchers. “John Britton pitched out of his skin all day, and Rhys Otter came in and closed out the game,” he said. Burgoine also highlighted the offensive performance of first baseman Nick Barrington. “Nick Barrington scored a 3 for 3 with about 4 RBIs, so the absolute star of the day was definitely Nick,” he said. “It was a tight game, really good.” While he had no notes for improvement in the game, Burgoine said his team definitely felt the Grand Final pressure. “There was lots of pressure. We tried to teach the guys that it’s just another game, but it never is,” he said. “It’s always good to come away with a win. I hope that we can bring it back for next year.” Stay tuned for match of the round coverage each week for the rest of the season.

A clear-skied Sunday brought on the second round of women’s finals, with South East Warriors taking an 11-7 win over Melbourne Uni Blue. SEW coach Grace Raszewski, said she was really happy with her team’s performance, and the result. ‘I’m really proud of my girls for hitting hard from a really tough pitcher,’ she said.  In terms of particular standouts from the game, she congratulated a few of her players on their performances. ‘I think Eva played really well. Ellie at third base was hyping everyone up and keeping the team up. Lucky got a really lovely hit out to right field which was just shy of a home run, so did Ash I believe,’ she said. But Raszewski also acknowledged her players felt the pressure of finals, and noted the difference in her team’s energy throughout the match. ‘I’ve got a lot of very competitive players, and so when they made a single mistake, even though it didn’t have a big effect on the score, they still got in their heads about it,’ she said. The coach added there was still room for improvement heading into the grand final against North Balwyn Hornets. ‘You could definitely see that out on the ground, there wasn’t a lot of talking and heads were down at points. We still played well, we still played aggressively in the box, which is what I asked from the team. But I definitely think we could’ve done better,’ she said. Stay tuned for match of the round coverage each week for the rest of the season.

On a super Saturday for the Werribee Giants last weekend, the club hosted three grand finals featuring its junior teams, winning two out of the three hotly contested fixtures. In the City West under 13s, Werribee defeated Sunshine 6-3. Werribee’s U13 coach Jayden Sulufaiga said despite a bit of a slow start, he was very proud of his team. “I think the weight of the occasion got to them a little bit. It was more of the second half of the game that they really turned it on its head, with their batting and base running, so really proud of that,” he said. In the City West under 15s, Werribee defeated Sunshine 6-5. Werribee’s U15 assistant coach Mark Riches said his team also felt the pressure of contesting a grand final early in the game. “Today was probably the biggest amount of pressure that we had on us. Our pitching was a little bit erratic early,” he said. However, despite the close contest his charges came good. “The Sunshine team took it right up to us and the game could’ve been anyone’s til the last moment,” he said. In the MWBL under 17 reds, Doncaster defeated Werribee 4-2. Congratulating his team on their impressive situational hitting, Doncaster coach Duffy Dowling applauded their efforts. “When we needed to move runners along, we did it. Very good and productive outs. I think 3 of our 4 runs were either on sac flys or productive outs, and in a Grand Final that’s how you want to see it played,” he said. Dowling praised pitcher Luke Hutton for his outstanding performance. “I think his first pitch strike percentage was really high. He was certainly our best player today,” Dowling said. He also praised his team’s opposition. “[It was] a really great grand final, I