It was day to remember for Pakenham Pumas veteran Jay Mazurek who put the bitter taste of nine grand final defeats to one side to help his team win the Dandenong Baseball Association C2 premiership against Berwick on Saturday.
The Pumas split their grand finals on the weekend, with the C1 team running into a red-hot Bonbeach outfit.
Here’s how the day unfolded.
C2: Grand Final: Pumas 7 v Berwick 4
The old saying goes that “Good things come to those who wait”, and for Jay Mazurek the wait has been a long one.
As a founding member of the Pakenham Pumas Baseball Club in 2000, and the club’s first life member, Jay has endured 25 years and nine grand final loses, waiting to get his hands on a premiership flag.
On Saturday afternoon at KH Wearne Reserve in Springvale, that long wait finally came to an end.
Jay and his Pumas C2 team were victorious in a tightly contested battle against a feisty Berwick Dodgers team.
Having split the regular season against each other with win one win each and a draw, these two were by far the top two teams of the competition.
The Pumas won the 1 v 2 semi-final against Berwick 12-3 to go straight to the grand final two weeks ago, but as Jay knows all too well, the job is not done until you have your hands on the flag.
The opposition always has a vote in that decision.
Pakenham was on the back foot straight away and narrowly avoided going a run behind when a line drive from a Berwick batter ricocheted off the Pumas pitcher Scott Dale’s elbow and went out to shallow right-field.
Luckily for the Pumas, right fielder Greg McCormick was on the ball, picking it up and making a pin-point accurate throw to catcher Andrew Mayberry just in time to tag out a Berwick runner trying to score from second base.
Berwick’s strong start continued in the second innings when they took the lead, scoring two runs following some nervy fielding and a couple of errors from the Pakenham side.
The Pumas showed great courage to come straight back at Berwick with James Kinsella scoring on a pass ball and Andrew Mayberry scoring on an error induced by Brock Edwards.
Berwick continued to pressure Pakenham and retook the lead in the third, scoring one run on two hits.
Again, Pakenham wasted no time coming back, tying the game when Greg McCormick scored on a ground ball fielders’ choice by Wayne Porter, before taking the lead for the first time in the game when Porter and Scott Dale scored on a great hit to left field by Andrew Mayberry.
This made the score 5-3 to Pakenham.
The Pumas extended the lead to 7-3 in the fourth inning when Brock Edward’s scored on a single by Wayne Porter, and good discipline saw Greg McCormick come home on a loaded-bases walk. Berwick scored one more run in the fifth, but the Pakenham fielders held their nerves and got the three outs required in the top of the sixth inning to close out the game.
Along with Jay, seven other Puma players picked up their first premiership.
A huge thank you goes to all the supporters who came down for the game.
To the players and Jessica Moulding, our scorer for the whole season, as ‘Houghie’ always says, you don’t get many opportunities to play a grand final…get up for it and get the job done.
A great game a great season and a great team; Puma Pride!
C1 Grand Final: Pumas 6 v Bonbeach 16
Pumas took on Bonbeach in the C1 grand final this week and after such a strong year we knew Bonbeach would come out attacking strongly.
And boy did they; hitting everything in sight.
Sometimes you get lucky, but you also make your own luck, and they hit really well attacking Brad Jones’ pitching and hitting him hard between outfielders.
After two innings the Pumas were down 8-0.
The defensively strong Pumas line-up struggled to string hits together, and runners were thrown out by the catcher, shutting down our running game.
Looking for a change in momentum, Ray Pal came in to pitch and battled hard throwing rockets to keep the bats quieter.
That ended tragically in the fourth inning when Ray threw a ball only for it to fall out of his hand, and Ray to leave the diamond in agony; before being taken away in an ambulance.
Tests later revealed his upper arm snapped through the bone.
Tim Stockdale came onto the mound in urgent relief but couldn’t stem the damage with a further six runs added to the tally.
The Pumas put up a brave fight to score two runs an inning over the last three digs, but fell well short of the target in a 16-6 loss.
All credit goes to Bonbeach who took the game apart with the bat and defended strongly.
Grand final aside, it was a fantastic effort by the C1 side in a dominate season; only losing twice for the year.
A great bunch of guys and hopefully we’ll all be back next season to try again.
-Jessica Moulding-
