Just 12 months removed from winning the MWBL B-Reserve grand final, the Doncaster Seconds added an A-Reserve premiership to their trophy cabinet with a 5-3 victory over Melbourne Uni on Saturday.
Starting on the bump for the Dragons, John Britton was in control for the first two innings before running into trouble. A leadoff walk in the top of the third, followed by a couple of hits, saw Doncaster facing an early 2-0 deficit.
Nick Barrington, who finished the day 3-for-3, helped square the ledger in the bottom half. Following a double by young centrefielder Ethan Johnston, Barrington smoked a double of his own to get the Dragons on the board. Another two-bagger, this time by shortstop Todd Messinger, then scored Barrington to tie the game at 2-2.
An inning later, leftfielder Jamie Bastian and rightfielder Lucas Banjac worked a pair of two-out walks before a Johnson single loaded the bases and brought about a pitching change. Catcher Sam Lethborg followed with an RBI walk that gave the Dragons their first lead of the day before Barrington broke it open with a two-RBI shot to left that made it a 5-2 game.
Approaching 90 pitches in the fifth, Britton plunked the leadoff and allowed him to take second base by way of a balk. That runner would come around to score as Britton retired the next two hitters, his day coming to an end following a single that brought the tying run to the plate.
In what turned out to be his swansong, veteran Rhys Otter came out of the bullpen and promptly ended the threat, inducing a weak pop-up to first-baseman Josh Lacey to preserve Doncaster’s 5-3 advantage.
Needing three outs to win, Otter came back out for the top of the sixth but Melbourne Uni would not go quietly – a one-out double by Australian representative Abbey Kelly again bringing the tying run to the dish. The Bombers followed with a sharp shot to left, but Bastian came up throwing to gun down Kelly at third for the second out.
The Dragons clinched victory moments later as Otter froze the next hitter for a called strike three.
For the MWBL report and quotes from coach Tom Burgoine, click here.
Doncaster Baseball Club 