Tag: softball

Week 15 – Hurricanes @ Rippers

Judging by the last game against Hurricanes, we knew this one could be difficult and as always we were struggling for girls, however we managed to get a full team together of registered Rippers.

Before the game started it became apparent that Hurricanes had taken advantage of their massive squad (under the Thunder banner) to complement their team. Sighing, we remained strong and thought we would give this our best shot. We huddled together and decided we were going to play this game “The Ripper” way and have some fun. This was the ‘David v Goliath’ match and our slingshots were poised ready to strike.
Top of the first and we were up to bat first. Our worst nightmare, 3 up 3 down. Proof as if we needed that we needed to bring our best game to have any chance at all. So that’s what we did, we rallied together with lots of support and shouting of encouragement we managed a shut out of our own! COME ON RIPPERS!
Top of the 2nd 0-0. This time we managed 4 at bat but still failed to score. Could we shut out the might of Hurricanes again? Sadly not this time BUT, continuing with the support and encouragement of all 10 Rippers on the field and our supporters on the sidelines we kept them to just 2 runs.
Top of the 3rd 0-2. We now had more confidence and knew this wasn’t going to be the whitewash we had feared when faced with such experience. We managed 7 at bat and scored 2 runs to bring the scores even. Back to fielding. Again the “Ripper Spirit” took over and we fielded really well keeping Hurricanes to a single run. It looked to us that Hurricanes also thought they had a game on their hands now too. Worried faces were looking back at us.
Top of the 4th 2-3. The belief in the Rippers was now immense. We were hitting hard and causing fielding mistakes with our base running. The noise we were making now was great, considering there were only about 15 of us in total, most of the noise was coming from Dave Warren, standing in as captain. We managed 5 runs in the fourth giving us a lead. Now we needed to defend it. Some great pitching, some amazing catches and a lack of any kind of mistakes gave us our second shut out. BOOM!
Top of the fifth 7-3. Time to bat again. This inning saw our 2 best hits of the day. The first from Scott Barton, he hit a triple bringing home 2 RBIs. Next up was Simon Baird who hit his first home run of the season bringing himself and Scott home. Total for the innings 4. Giving us a lead of 8 going into the bottom of the fifth. Another shut out! Rippers fielding was on fire again.
The sixth innings saw a double shut out.
So we were entering the 7th and final innings 11-3 up. We saw Hurricanes were all huddled together planning how they could get back into this game. They shut us out again! We were gutted, but knew all we had to do was keep their total low and we would win. In all honesty we looked nervous and Hurricanes knew it. Dave’s pitching dropped off and he gave his first walk. A couple of wayward throws in the field and Hurricanes started scoring. Surely the Rippers weren’t going to let the Hurricanes catch up. We took a moment rallied the troops and got on with it. Hurricanes had their best innings of the night, BUT, it wasn’t enough. The Rippers had done it. Final score 11-7. What a game to be part of!

Week 10 – Barflies at Rippers

We love the Barflies. We played our first ever league game against them ever and we joined forces at firstball for the spoon final (the Ripflies?). We always enjoy playing the barflies, there is always lots of banter and the game is always close. This meeting was no different.

The barflies opened the innings with a solid 2 runs scored which the Rippers responded with Bruce and Jay getting things under the way and leading us into 2nd at 2-2.
The second innings was a great innings for us shutting out the barflies very quickly and then proceeding to take a mammoth 8 runs due to some nice base hitting and a few doubles. Three strikeouts took us into the fourth (including a husband and wife who both K’d and are competing against each other on the Rippers).

The third innings saw a home run from Dave Warren which managed to bring in 2 making it a total of 4 for the innings leaving the score at BRF 6 – 14 RIP.

With a comfortable lead, things could only get worse for the Rippers and although we shut out the barflies in the fourth, we also failed to score. But the barflies are steady drinkers, not the binge variety of the rippers and they kept their heads clear and managed to bring home 4 in the 5th which the Rippers had no response too. Things were now worryingly close and the Rippers comfortable lead was shortened to only 14-10 to us.

At the top of the sixth, barflies kept their heads again and brought in a steady four which lefts us tied on 4 and we could only reply with one run scored by Becky after a nice double by our sub – Duffy. It also didn’t help that in this innings, I forgot how to use my hands and as the pitcher, that’s no good at all.

With the score worrying close at the top of the 7th (15-14 to Rippers) we needed to shut them out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately with the pitcher having no control over his hands and most of the Rippers outfield more worried about what time last orders was, we didn’t quite manage it and instead let the barflies slip two past us.

So this was it. bottom of the 7th and one run to tie (or two to win RAARRR) and up first to bat was me, back at the top of the order. Luckily I managed to gain control of my limbs and hit a double which then allowed Janette to follow with a single but left me held up at 2B. With Eddy ‘coat hangar’ Woodcock hitting a nice line drive down the centre bringing me home and then Sophie ‘jaws’ Temple hitting a single, it put us one up and we took the game.

We really enjoyed this game, top work barflies!

MVPS go to Dave ‘PP’ Warren and Mandy ‘TT’ Ashton

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R
BRF 2 0 4 0 4 4 2  16
RIP 2 8 4 0 0 1 2 17

Also An Apology.
Last week we insinuated that Martine could not count. We apologise for this and redact that statement. She can count really really well, its just that sometimes she gets her sixes and nines mixed up.

Week 4 – Rippers @ Drizzle

Rippers started the game against Drizzle with some trepidation knowing that they had tied with Tigers previously.

Batting first, it was a great start in the first innings scoring a quick 5 runs in succession before being called for an infield fly out. Drizzle replied with 2 of their own in the first innings leaving the score 5-2 at the top of the second.

3 very quick catches from Drizzle saw us go out quickly in the second innings but the Rippers still managed to bring 3 home with a home run from Ed Woodcock and this went unchallenged from Drizzle.

In the third – Bruce scored a triple (reminder: STOP watching the ball and listen to the base coaches) but should have been a homer. A few more good swings from the other batters and we finished the third innings 12-2.

Some nice hitting (and a few walks) in the fourth saw us take another 5 runs and Drizzle managed to score another 2 with the score becoming a mighty 17-4 for the Rippers.

With another 6 scored in the fifth, the Rippers pretty much had it in the bag and a few strikeouts and an easy catch for the pitcher saw this go unanswered from Drizzle. The blue then called in the mercy rule leaving the game finished at 23-4 to the Rippers.

Was a tremendous victory and left all Rippers very proud. Great work people – we are top of the league!

MVPS go to Ed and Izzy

1 2 3 4 5 R
RPP 5 3 4 5 6 23
DRZ 2 0 0 2 X 4