Sunshine is back on the winners’ list, after a convincing victory in its top-of-the-table Vic Summer League clash against Sandringham on Sunday.
Sunshine grabbed its fifth win with an 8-2 triumph that showed how dominant it can be with both bat and glove in hand.
After struggling on the hitting end in last week’s loss to Melbourne, the Eagles were diligent all day in getting players on base then moving them around to score on a regular basis – something coach Jared Van Hoon was pleased to see.
“I think we used last week’s offensive down to our advantage … this week we came out and had quality at-bats all game long,” Van Hoon said.
“We swung the good pitches, we put the ball in play, we had two sacrifice bunts to move runners over and both those times that equated into runs, so obviously that’s huge. It was a good offensive day for us.”
Tayler Rowe started on the mound for the Eagles, throwing six solid innings for the home side before Van Hoon closed the game out.
After two scoreless innings to open the game, the visiting Sandringham opened the scoring with two runs in the third inning before Sunshine hit back straight away and slowly got on top of the contest.
After struggling at the plate last week, it was a different Sunshine this week as Van Hoon (two hits) and Jason Tutt (two hits) hit well.
A hit from catcher Jamie Young led to three runs late in the game.
Van Hoon said the turnaround did not surprise him.
“I think last week was a bit of a reality check for us,” he said.
“We had a week training with the mind-set of, ‘we know what kind of team we are, we know we can swing the bat and score runs’ – and today we did exactly that.
“We had quality at-bats … I like to preach to our guys about that, that it’s not all about getting hits, it’s about moving guys over and getting runners around safely.”
With the season starting to move into mid-week games, Van Hoon said his side was well placed to maintain its position at the top of the ladder and show off the depth of its pitching roster.
“It’s always interesting to plan out our roster for these games,” he said.
“I’m actually happy we are at that point because we have the rotations for that.
“Pretty much all our guys are going to be pitching every week, so I think that will be good for us.
“I would rather play than train anyway. I think you learn more about the game when you’re playing it so I think the mid-weeks are only going to make us stronger.”
