Clapham South was the location of some high quality softball on Monday night, as the Dazzlers travelled south of the river to a ground which had played host to some emotional nights for the team in recent years. However the presence of some newer members, including Nikki playing as starting catcher on her league dayboo, helped to clear the collective Dazzler mind of bad memories and the team came together to give a respectable performance in a tight match.
In the top of the first innings some tight fielding held the Dazzlers to nil, with only Isaac getting on base. In reply the Raiders opened their account with an enormous home run, the first of several. In the second Steph got on base with a strong hit before a misunderstanding resulted in her being run out by Ed who was enthusiastically bounding round the bases, as his huge hit deserved. He ended up stranded on second and another run to the Raiders had the score at 0-2 going into the third innings.
After two quick outs the Dazzlers bottom order instigated a rally with Sicilian lemon merchant Rob* and Maria* getting on base, ready for Jack to shepherd home on a home run hit inside-out to rightfield. This gave the Dazzlers the lead for the first and only time in the game. The Raiders' consistent scoring continued despite some tricksy pitching by Simon and big catches in the deep from Ed, Erin and Jack. The Dazzlers added a fourth run to tie the scores in their next inning, with Steph batting in Chicken Tony who had hit a triple. It was the infield's turn to shine next as Isaac and Amy both bagged difficult catches and the game went into the fifth innings at 4-5.
Three up, three down in the Dazzlers' next innings, before holding the Raiders to no score for the first time, courtesy of short-stop Tony racing to win a forced out at second. Come the top of the seventh, the Dazzlers' lone run wasn't quite enough to make the home team bat for a final time and the game finshed 5-6.
MVP for the night was Jack with three big outfield catches and a home run plus two more RBIs.
Despite the result, the Dazzlers can be pleased with some solid defence against an excellent batting team, as they were beaten only by some impressively enormous hitting. The Dazzlers' own game at the plate was resilient in the face of some disappointing innings, trusting one another and constructing runs with teamwork which shows that there is more to the team than the first two innings.
Dazzlers 5 (x x 3 1 x x 1)
Raiders 6 (1 1 2 1 x 1 -)
*I think. I may be wrong.
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