This week we were on the road to Bellville to take on the Bellville Tygers. With club vs club fixtures, it means there are certain of our senior players spending up to 12 hours on the baseball field when we play away games. As a club we definitely appreciate these members commitment and we just request that parents and supporters keep reminding themselves of these members commitment to their kids when things don’t go the way we want it to go during the games. These coaches are volunteers and spend countless hours teaching your kids not only baseball, but life skills as well.

The early starters had to be on the road by 7h15 and the weather in Bellville was scorching. This meant there was some lethargy amongst the players and the coaches had their work cut out to keep the kids in the games. Overall the baseball was of a good standard and we can be proud of our kids.

Our junior softball team also resumed the second half of their season and coach Brian Lombard has been phenomenal in keeping the softball section operating under some trying times.

On to the games!

YOUTH BASEBALL

UNDER 10′S -VOB vs Tygers – Result: 11-1(VOB’s favour)

What a great day for baseball and it was good to see so many parents travel to Bellville to support their kids. For a change we played against a ver young team. VOB looked good in the batters box with pitch ball and everyone hit well, with Jordan Riffel adding another two home runs to his tally for the season. Shakeel Jattiem did an awesome job when asked to field at pitcher in the last inning. Coach JayH and Yusuf – “the kids are the future”

UNDER 12′s - Result: 10-11 (Bellville’s favour)

Lineup: Jesse Johnson (p), Calim Williams ©, Rayon Wydeman (1st), Matthew Haupt (2nd), Abduraghman Wakefield (3rd), Cody Waldegrave (SS), Jared van Schalkwyk (LF), Taygan Buckton (CF), Damon Slingers (RF) SUB: Erin Tobias

This week saw all our players returning to practices, which was a good start in fulfilling this fixture. Due to their late return, however, we had to shake off the baseball cobwebs first. We started the game off well by only conceding two runs. Jesse pitched well by completing 2.5 innings and in the second inning only faced three batters to keep Bellville scoreless. Abduraghman relieved Jesse for 1.5 innings before Rayon came in to close the game. We had one of our better outings with the bat this season as we managed to stay ahead of Bellville until the last inning. Hits were recorded by Rayon, Cody, Damon (his first outing for VOB – Welcome) Abduraghman, Jared, Calim & Jesse. Defensively, we executed the routine plays but could not restrain Bellville’s big hitters from clearing the outfielders. There are lots of positives and key development areas that were highlighted in this game, so it’s back to the practice field to work on them. See everyone at practice this week.

UNDER 14′S -VOB vs Tygers – Result: 13-2(Bellville)

Line up:Naeem Dollie (P), Tristan Williams (C) Reece Segers (1B), Calim Williams (2B), fayaad Stober (3B), Daniel Darius (SS), Connor Hodges (LF), Nicholas Erntzen, Robyn Lewin (RF)

On an extremely hot day on the baseball field, I don’t think that any player would find pleasure in taking the field, but for the love of the game we do it every single week. never minding the heat, it becomes really hard for us coaches putting a team together with limited players. Brett Bergsma and Jonah Lewin being called up to the u16′s, Megan Abrahams out for 6 weeks due to a fractured elbow and Ammaarah Larney being unavailable. Although these players were unavailable, the teams spirit was still on a high. The game started off on a positive note woth Tristan FINALLY hitting his long awaited homerun (2 run). Naeem threw exceptionally well keeping the Bellville hitters clueless.Unfortunately for the pitch count rule he had to be replaced by Reece and then Fayaad who came on to close the game. Although the result did not go in our favour, the team kept their heads up and smiles all round – something that I have not seen in a while! Remember that baseball is the winner overall. Big thanks to the u12 players that helped fill the team – Abduraghmaan Wakefield, Calim Williams, Jesse Johnson and Rayon Wedeman, you guys did exceptionally well. Thanks to Astrid Hodges for keeping the team hydrated in the heat. Also thank you to Lester Fortuin and Darryl Gonsalves for helping our pitchers and catchers at trainings, it is really starting to show in their games.

UNDER 16′S -VOB vs Tygers – Result: 5-4 (VOB)

Starting Line-up:

Zubair Laney(P), Robin White(C), Yonnic Carelse(1st), Jonah Lewin(2nd)(u14), Brett Bergsma(3rd)(u14), Shaneez Jattiem(SS), Cindy Carter(LF), Shadley Wakefield(CF), Tashrieq Cassiem(RF).

This week we came up against Bellville Tygers in what would be a very tough game for us due to 3 of my regular starters not at the game and 1 going to be late because of school commitments. This left us in a bit of trouble as we didn’t have enough players and had to borrow from the u14 side which allowed us to  field a team. Thanks so much to Jonah Lewin and Brett Bergsma for helping out.

 An awesome defensive job at 3rd base by Brett Bergsma(u14) who made quite a number of outstanding heads up plays to keep Bellville scoreless.

We started off the game better than anticipated scoring 4 runs in the 1st 2 innings. A really good pitching performance from Zubair Larney keeping Bellville scoreless until the 4th inning before reaching his pitch count.

This however is where the fun would all begin. With some of my other pitchers not here and the others arms feeling sore left our team in a bit of trouble. The ball was then handed to Cindy Carter who stepped up big getting out of a bases loaded jam by getting the batter to pop the ball with one out causing the infield fly rule to take effect and with the ball landing close to home, the ball was then picked up and the runner coming home who ran at his own risk was tagged out for the 3rd out. This left us 4-2 up going into the last inning. We managed to add to our lead and made it 5-2. Cindy gave up another 2 runs before managing to close the game out and a 5-4 victory for VOB.

Well done guys!!!

Best hitters were:

Robin White (2-3, R, SB), Zubair Larney (2-3, 2B, 3 RBI’s, R, SB), Tashrieq Cassiem (1-1, R, HBP)

SENIOR BASEBALL

MASTERS - on bye 

FIRST RESERVE -VOB vs. Tygers - Result: 13-2 (Bellville)

No report received

MAJOR LEAGUE

Saturday (21/1) -Bellville vs VOB - Result: 16-8 (Bellville)

The weather was scorching in Bellville and the second and third placed teams were taking each other on in the BAWP Majors. The most disappointing aspect of this game was the number of spectators at such a big game. There could not have been more than 50-70 spectators (if we were lucky) and that was sad. These two teams were both trailing log leaders Athlone A’s and would have wanted to win in order to stay in touch with A’s who had an easy assignment against bottom club Helderberg Pirates.

Bellville started with Ryan Groves and VOB countered with Lester Fortuin. Groves (3.2 innings, 0 hits, 2 ER’s, 7 BB’s, 4 K’s and 1 WP) really struggled with his control, but kept the damage to a minimum. He conceded 0 hits, but allowed 7 walks of which VOB scored 2 runs before coach Alan Phillips decided he had seen enough. Groves was replaced by Keenan Mashonga, but he too struggled with his control and allowed VOB to close the gap by allowing 3 hits, 3 ER’s, 3 BB’s before he was replaced after 0.2 innings by Russel Olivier (4 inn, 1 hit, 2 ER’s, 2 BB’s, 2 HBP, 1 K and 1 WP) and finally Shannon Eckermans (0.2 inn, 0 hits, 0 ER’s and 1 SF). Fortuin was steady in the first two innings, but 2 HBP’s, a BB and an infield error allowed Bellville to score 5 runs in the 3rd inning. VOB slowly clawed their way back into the game and by the end of the 6th inning it was 8-7 in Bellville’s favour. The 7th started with another basic error and suddenly the wheels came off for VOB with Bellville scoring 5 unanswered runs. Fortuin (6 innings, 10 hits, 7 ER’s, 2 BB’s, IBB, 2 HBP’s and 1 K) was replaced with Gavin Jeffries who could not “stop the bleeding”. Jeffries pitched 2 innings allowing 10 hits, 3 ER’s, HBP, 1 K and 1 WP.

Best hitters for VOB were Adrian Langeveldt (2-3, HR, BB, HBP, 4 RBi’s), Karl Weitz (1-3, 2B, 2 BB’s) and Robin Jones (1-3, K,1 RBi). Best hitters for Bellville were Anthony Phillips (4-6, 3x2B, 3RBi’s), Alan Randall (3-5, BB,SB,RBi), Jonathan Phillips (2-4, 2xHBP, SB, 2RBi’s), Russel Olivier (2-4, HBP, 2 RBI’s), Craig Marshall (2-4, 2B, HR,RBi), Kyle Ettisch (2-5, SB, 2 RBi’s) and Andrew Norman (2-5, 2K’s, 2 RBi’s).

Bellville make up ground on both VOB and A’s going into their Sunday game against A’s.

Sunday (22/1) - Bothasig vs VOB – Result: 6-5 (Bothasig) After Saturday’s loss to Bellville, VOB wanted to get back to winning ways to stay in touch with the log leaders. The good weather continued and with Bothasig vs VOB games there are always good crowds and this game was no different. Bothasig came to Chukker Road with their tails up after a great win against Durbanville the day before and obviously wanted to get revenge after their previous losses to VOB.

Bothasig started with Devon Clarke and VOB countered with Adrian Langeveldt. Langeveldt pitched 6 innings allowing 4 hits, 4 ER’s, 3BB’s, 2 K’s and 2 WP’s before he was replaced by Gavin Jeffries (3 innings, 3 hits, 1 ER, 2 BB’s and 1 HBP) to finish the game. Clarke, meanwhile, settled down after a rocky start and although he was not at the top of his game he managed to keep the score down before handing over to Jean Sawyer. Clarke pitched 4 innings allowed 4 hits, 2 ER’s, 5 BB’s and 3 K’s and Sawyer went 5 innings allowing 5 hits, 5 BB’s, 1 K and 1 WP to come away with the W. VOB only had themselves to blame for this loss with errors at crucial times and by giving Bothasig 3 runs through 2 WP’s and 1 HBP with baseball loaded as well as leaving 12 runners on base.

Best hitters for Bothasig were L.Stein (3-5, 2B), Kyle Botha (1-3, SH, BB), JP Norman (1-4, HBP, RBi) and Warrick Cheetham (1-3, 2B, SF, 2 RBi’s). Best hitters for VOB were Paul Bell (2-4, BB, SB), Karl Weitz (3-5, 2x2B, RBi) and Jared Haynes (1-4, BB, SB, 2K’s, 1 RBi).

These losses sets VOB back, but luckily Bellville picked up a second win on the weekend by beating A’s. This leaves VOB trailing Bellville by 2 points and A’s by 4 points and everything still to play for this season. It seems like it is going to go down to the wire if results keep going the way they have been with the top 3 swapping places regularly.

SOFTBALL

Juniors: VOB (PNPS) 7, Trendsetters 8

With six raw beginners in the side, and lacking anyone who had even practised as catcher, we did well to just go down. Unlike our big opponents, who included three boys, we swung the bat to collect six hits; Danesha and rookie Zoë Theunissen each batted 2/2. Walks proved our defensive undoing – practise is needed!

Major: VOB 0, Strandfontein Mets 4

A nervous start saw us concede four runs where two should have been the maximum. After that Carmen was brilliant, striking out eight batters, and there was just one more error in the field. With an apparently easy task – to score just five runs, and this against the slowest pitcher in the league, we failed miserably. We popped up with regularity and ran ourselves out of the two opportunities we had. Good drives from Sam and Rozelle, and a return to form by Carmenita, were all we could take away from this key encounter. We have now given ourselves everything to do to avoid relegation. 

Breaking News!

Our dugouts are just about complete and our backstop has been overhauled and looks brilliant. Patience has been the order of the day due to the cost to get the facilty upgraded.

Anniversaries, birthdays, etc.

Brett Paulsen (1/1), Taylor Weider (6/1), Kelsey Tobias (13/1), Ethan Fellies (20) and Brevan Pharaoh (24/1) have or will be celebrating birthdays. We wish you all a very happy birthday and wish you the best for the future. Please let us know if anyone is celebrating their birthday or anniversary so that we can congratulate them and so that their club mates can make their day even more special.

Fundraiser function, events, etc.

No events or functions in the next week.

Thought for the week

“We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give “ – If we all have this as our motto we will make more of a difference in others (and our own) lives.

Remember, if there is anything that you would like included in the weekly round up contact me and I will insert it. If you know of any person who is not receiving the mail or would want to receive it please contact me and don’t forget our web address (www.vob.org.za) and e-mail ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Kevin Johnson

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