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Tigers Tournament Reports 2011
Manchester
The Tigers had a very enjoyable time at the Manchester tournament, despite some slightly dodgy weather (though it was not as bad as Leeds). We won 4 of 9 group games before losing a light hearted placing game that meant we finished 12th out of 20 teams. The teams we turned over were the Dragons, Clangers, Outlaws 2 and Highland Chargers, we also played perhaps our best game against eventual finalists the Demons, going down 7-14 in a well played game.
King of the batters was Sam who had an OBP of over 900 for the weekend, and the Queen was Aimee who topped the female chart in her first weekend of Softball. Our Home Run Hero was Sam again who hit 3 over the weekend and was followed by Ed and Richard with one each. Ed also deserves special mention for some really strong performances over the whole weekend which underlined how much we have missed him in the league as a result of his various injuries this season. Other strong performances came from Ellie, who batted well and did some sterling work at second, and Karen G who did some good work in right field.
Special thanks to Janet Cragg who played for us on the Sunday and very much looked the part despite a 2 year gap since her last Softball game.
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Leeds
Despite a slight miscalculation that left us in the cup rather than the plate we performed well at Leeds with some impressive performances against teams that normally play at a higher level than ourselves. We won 2 of 3 games in our initial group, a heartbreaking 5 - 4 loss to Souls was followed by comfortable wins against Thunder and Dynamite. The day finished with a loss against a very strong Outlaws team, the first of 3 cup round robin games, but all in all we could be very satisfied with our first day.
Car trouble meant that we had to beg and borrow to complete a team for the first Sunday game, but we put in an excellent performance before going down 8-9 to the Castaways. We performed creditably again in our final group game against Terriers, which was nip and tuck until they ran away with it in the last 10 minutes. Our last game was a placing game against the Bullfrogs where we again performed creditably in defeat.
There were a few negatives, the weather was horrible all weekend, the balls were cheap and nasty, and the pitch we played our last 4 games on was a joke, with nettles encroaching into the catchers box and regular trips over a barbed wire fence needed to rescue lost balls.
Also, being a Tigers team, we ended Saturday with three players limping along and Steve wasn't able to play on Sunday.
There were lots of fine performances over the weekend. In particular Sharon hit like a dream and fielded excellently, Michelle was courageous as well as effective on both second and first, and Richard and Sam were impressive all weekend.
Thanks to all the guests, Many, Benkei, Sonia and Nichola, not forgetting cameo appearances from Ian, Mark and Ross.
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Red Rose 2
The Tigers won another tense Red Rose final 14-12 against a Dragons team who had beaten us 18-2 in group play earlier in the day. Richard was king of the batting averages, batting 1000 for the day, but Sian was the Home Run queen, her 2, one in the semi and one in the final, did a great deal towards winning the trophy. The other members of the top 5 in average were Sam, Dave, Sian (of course), and last but not least Sharon.
We had started the day slowly with the Dragons giving us lessons in both hitting and fielding as they strolled to an easy win. We showed signs of life in the second game, an 8-2 win against the Enforcers with some impressive fielding the highlight. That fielding didn't carry through into the third game were a series of errors gifted the new boy Pirates a an early lead. It was nip and tuck for the rest of the game, we pulled level but then the Pirates seized a one run lead in the top of the final innings. In the bottom of the innings however Sian and Dave lead off with pinch hit singles, and then Sam won the game with a bases clearing triple (10-9).
We then had a semi final against Mayhem which we won as at a canter. Four of the top five (Sam, Sian, Martyn and Richard) went 4 for 4 with Sian hitting a home run, and there was plenty of hitting lower down the order as well as we won 21-6.
The final was a tight well played game with the lead changing hands several times in the first few innings. The Dragons were 2 runs up after 4, but the Tigers then scored 3 runs in each of the 5th and 6th innings whilst shutting the Dragons out. We scored another 2 runs in the top of the 7th and it was just as well as the Dragons woke up again in the bottom of the innings scoring 4 before a long, long foul out ended the game.
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Red Rose Cup
The Tigers won the Red Rose Cup only after going into extra innings in a dramatic final against Thunder that swung one way and then the other before a six run burst in the top of the eighth gave us the cushion needed to get the win. It had all been a lot more straight forward earlier in the day with impressive round robin wins against the Enforcers (12-7), Thunder (17-2) and Armadillos (15-8) in blustery and sometimes wet conditions.
The Tigers leapt out into a lead in the final, 7-2 ahead after 2 innings, but couldn't hold on to the lead. A strong blustery wind caused some problems for the Tigers pitcher, there were a couple of fumbles in the field and Thunder took advantage to came back strongly. Some impressive batting was capped by Griff hitting a Home Run over the show pitch fence, and Thunder were 13-11 ahead after 4. It was nip and tuck from there on in, the Tigers had clawed their way back into the lead going into the 7th, but Thunder rallied again and only some good defensive work from the big cats, with the highlight a catch em out throw em out double play by James, took the game into extra innings.
Despite starting the 8th with a runner on 2nd the Tigers went 2 down without scoring a run, or even advancing the lead runner, and things were looking good for Thunder, but a base hit from Sian then kick started a 6 run rally that decided a thrilling game that could have gone either way.
Batting average leaders for the day were Sam .800 and James .727 followed by a group of 3, Richard, Sian and Alex on .714. Home Run Heroes were Alex (3), Martyn (2) and Karen and Richard with one each. Sarah also impressed at the plate, going 8 for 12 (.667). Sam and Martyn both pitched well, Martyn had problems with a really high wind in the final but rallied well in the later stages of the game and his hitting in the final went a long way to winning the game for us.
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MSL Firstball
The Tigers made their competitive debut at the MSL First Ball tournament, and we had a very successful time. We played ten games over the weekend and looked a completely different side by the end of the weekend to the one that started out on Saturday morning. In the initial round robin we didn't win any games but we ran the Sheriffs close and learned a heck of a lot which we then used in winning two games out of four in the plate. We won games against Dynamite and the Clanger Camels and only lost by 1 run against the Meerkats. Only the Raiders, run away winners of the plate, were too good for us. There were lots of fine individual performances. Sam and Martyn both pitched well, Kate looked good on first on Saturday, Sian was excellent on Sunday, Richard gave us some valuable power at the plate. James, Karen G and Sharon took memorable catches in the out field and Alex did a fine job at short stop. Everyone else played well and we looked more and more like a team with each successive game.
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