Coach fury as Cougars fall

By Gavin Staindl
BERWICK was ‘smacked and pantsed’ according to Cougars coach Wayne Porter after being defeated 12-0 by Werribee at Presidents Park in Division Two men’s baseball at the weekend.
Berwick was shutout for the first time this season and from the end of the first innings the Cougars never looked like winning.
After giving up one run in the first, the Cougars missed out on a run down with one out.
Had the Cougars made the out, the ensuing ground-out would have finished off the innings, instead Werribee, with two out, made Berwick pay for its mistakes and went on to score five runs before the Cougars could force an end to the inning.
This infuriated Porter who proceeded to take his team behind the dugout after the first innings to ‘tear strips off them’.
“It was just disappointing,” he said.
Porter also noted that the mindset of his players was starting to become an issue.
“We’re playing and pitching not to get hurt. We need to play to win – need to force a contest.”
The Berwick line-up that only managed five scattered hits for the match had to be restructured for the Werribee match, as many young players were unavailable to play.
“I counted it out, there were between 18-20 players who were not able to play over the five grades for whatever reason,” Porter said.
Berwick are expecting the return of their young players from ‘schoolies’ while the star of last week’s miraculous 7-6 comeback over Port Melbourne, Ricky Collins, is expected to play next Sunday against St. Kilda after being unavailable against Werribee.
“I wanted to win two of the final three games of the year and we played well against them (St. Kilda) last time so we’re still on track,” Porter said.
Meanwhile, the Springvale-Berwick women sat this week out with a bye, but were preparing to play league leaders Doncaster on Wednesday night as the News went to print.