Failure to hold their nerve at bat, leading to an abnormally high strike-out count, has been the undoing of the Sunshine Eagles in the opening two rounds of the Baseball Victoria summer league division 1.
The Eagles had an unhealthy 14 strike-outs in round one and went one worse with 15 in Saturday’s 5-4 loss to Geelong Baycats at Barclay Reserve, so it’s no surprise they have stalled out of the gates to hold a 0-2 record.
“Their pitchers threw OK but not 15 strike-outs worth,” Eagles coach Earl Byrne told the Weekly. “It’s probably attitude and concentration level.
“They’ll still take a big swing on two strikes when they should be looking at trying to punch the ball and keep it in play.
“If we’d done that today, even if we had six fewer strike-outs, it could’ve made the difference in the game.”
PICTURE GALLERY: Sunshine Eagles v Geelong
Eagles import Chris Prokupek bounced back on the mound to ask serious questions of the Geelong batters.
He recorded nine strike outs in seven innings to leave the game with a 3-2 lead.
That evaporated in a matter of seconds when reliever Shaun Moore was hit over the fence on his first pitch.
Moore, last year’s Eagles player-coach, answered a mid-week call from Byrne to fill Adam Irons’ pitching role with Irons unavailable for selection.
Aside from coughing up the home run Moore was solid, altbhough he did give up the winning run in the ninth.
Prokupek, who looked on helplessly after leaving the game with a high pitch count, proved his worth to the Eagles, despite missing out on the win.
“He was pretty dominant with his off-speed stuff and had the Geelong hitters struggling a bit,” Byrne said. “It was a shame his pitch count was up because he had pretty good command. He’ll be good for us.”
Matt Davis was the pick of the Eagles batters with two doubles, a single and two RBIs.
Davis is lapping up his time in the big league after playing in the lower grades last season.
“He was playing fourths here last year,” Byrne said.
“He’s one of those players who was happy kicking around with his brother in the lower grades.
“This year he decided to give it a good crack and play division 1 and I’m glad he has.”
The Eagles will turn back time on two fronts on Saturday.
They’ll take to the field against Essendon at the earlier 11.30am timeslot in a show of goodwill to accommodate the Bombers, who requested an earlier game because of their president’s wedding that afternoon.
The Eagles are celebrating their 75th anniversary and will mark the occasion with specially made throw-back uniforms which the club used in the 1930s.
