The crowds, led by Maggie’s parents, gathered in the Monday evening sun to witness the Dazzlers break their losing streak with a confident and convincing victory. Transport problems resulted in the Dazzlers taking to the field late and with only nine players, however the Tigers failed to take full advantage of the gap in the outfield (made even bigger by Ed’s acrobatic fielding techniques, i.e. falling over), scoring only two in the first innings before Erin arrived to bring the team to full strength. The Dazzlers responded in fierce fashion, batting round the order to get nine home and give themselves a comfortable lead. Tidy fielding yielded a shut-out in the top of the second, before Jack took out the Tigers first catcher of the night on a close play at home to score the Dazzlers’ tenth run.
This naked aggression must have riled the Tigers as they responded with their best innings of the night, scoring five to bring the score to 7-10. Unfortunately for the visitors, the Dazzlers hit their straps at this point and did not concede another run in the next three innings. Last week’s misdemeanours were atoned as the infield gave Amy much better service at first base, vindicating skipper Chicken’s rostering of Simon at second base where he had a super game and Maggie made an eagerly anticipated return to third base. Although not his daughter’s wedding day, Sicilian Rob made the gift of a walk to the Tigers’ big hitter but it was of no consequence.
The Dazzlers continued well in offence throughout these innings, scoring in each one, and with everyone scoring. Simon had a flawless 5-5 at the plate scoring each time, Nikki made some good hits and made it round to score even with an injured leg, Nicole recovered from a disappointing strike out in the first innings to place some great drives over the infield to get on base, Ed produced another home run and Amy reversed her poor batting form of late. In fact the Dazzlers would have done even better had the Tigers' first baseman not been such a safe glove as he took down some mighty powershots from Erin, Maggie and Jack, who took out his second catcher of the night in retaliation.
Despite the Tigers scoring two consolation runs in the final innings, the Dazzlers did not need to bat again.
MVP for the night was Erin. Despite being late, she did take a clean catch while the full force of the Ed Taylor One-Man Slapstick Show was bearing down on her, and that is no mean feat.
Tigers 9 (2 x 5 x x x 2)
Dazzlers 24 (9 1 2 6 4 2 -)
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