Lessons to be learned

Tuesday August 13th saw 14 of Sefton's finest make the short journey down the M62 to play a much anticipated match against the Manchester Moorkats. 

Despite the prospect of a really wet match in the morning the weather was kind and so no rain coats were needed.

After a great deal of friendly banter on Facebook we started off in fine fashion scoring 3 in the first innings due to some good base hitting and, but for an injury to Craig who was tagged out at home, it could have been a few more runs.

The Moorkats first innings started out promisingly a good catch by Kate on first to put out big hitting, 3 home run queen, Debs and a strike out for Taj meant the first innings ended with a 3 -0 lead for Sefton. 

The second innings saw another 3 runs scored by Sefton courtesy  of a home run from Captain Steve Shearer. The Moorkats replied with 3 of their own leaving the score 6-3 after two innings.

In the third innings Sefton were unable to score and then the Moorkats managed to get three people on base and it was looking like they were going to score heavily, however two quick outs meant there was an opportunity to get away unscathed. This lead to Sefton's first lesson of the night. As the ball was hit gently back to Mark, instead of taking the easy out at one (despite Steve repeatedly screaming "play at one") in the heat of the moment Mark threw to the catcher to make the tag and unfortunately the ball took a bobble and the ball went dead allowing two to score. The Moorkats went on to score a third to level the game at six all.

In the fourth innings Sefton scored 3 thanks to a big hit from Jordan, who was unfortunate to be called out sliding in at 3rd, and a good triple from Steve. The Moorkats could only manage one thanks to a great tag by Phil on 2nd and a sharp catch by Mark who was having a great game.

The fifth innings was very uneventful with defences on top for both teams.

The sixth innings started very promisingly with the first three batters getting on base, however this is where Sefton learned their next lesson. Jordan hit the ball just over the pitcher's head and the pitcher made an outstanding catch, but because all the base runners started running without tagging up, the pitcher was able to make a very simple triple play to end the Sefton innings.

Sefton managed to minimise the damage thanks to two more strike outs and so went into the seventh innings with a one run lead. Sefton managed to score five runs in the top of the seventh to give themselves a healthy safety net going into the bottom of the seventh. 

So in the final innings the Moorkats needed six runs to tie the game. Several base hits later and the picture was looking very different. With one out remaining crazy legs Taj managed to force an error with some very aggressive base running that scored the run that tied the game and took us to an extra innings.

In the extra innings teams start with a player on second base but Sefton were unable to advance the runner and the Moorkats went on to score after a solid base hit.

There was much to be learned by Sefton from this game but there were many positives including a second very narrow loss against a much more experienced team, 100% on base stats for Matthew, Phil, Steve, Paul and Craig, superb pitching from Mark, great catches from Kath in deep and Kate on one, solid debuts for Matt, Graeme and Katie, Sarah playing very well at catcher and much more.

Our last match in the cup is against the newly crowned division 4 champions the Camels and Sefton will again provide tough opposition in a match that will show how strong Sefton will be next year when they join he Manchester League.