DESPITE only losing two games in the home and away season and even beating their opposition at their past two meetings the Ellenbrook Easterns went into the grand final enthusiastic but also nervous.
But the Division 5 women’s team put on brave faces in front of the sea of black and orange who had migrated to Mirrabooka stadium from Ellenbrook to support them and went on to beat the Jaguars 11-10.
Ellenbrook Easterns coaches Shannon and Dale Astill said at the first dig, the Easterns started in the field with the home team advantage and went straight to work like they had all season, backing up their pitchers with rock solid defence.
The Jaguars fired early but Anita Bush started the counter rolling an out at 3rd with Lorrae Kemp.
The Jaguars big hitter stepped up and Katrina Devlin took the catch they were waiting for.
Donna Grigg rounded out the dig snatching a fantastic grab on a line drive that would’ve otherwise seen runs score.
But instead the side got their chance with the bat.
Devlin’s lead of good luck continued and like she has all season, she was stealing bases before the opposition knew what was going on.
Andrea Hardeman then took to their pitcher driving in the first run with a two base hit.
Brielle Astill walked and Jamie Knight drove the pair in with a great drive to right field.
Susie Sirolli belted a ball deep into centre field, and it took a spectacular catch from the Jaguars player to finish off the dig.
Second dig and both teams brought their A games to the delight of spectators.
In the field, Grigg was putting on a catching clinic at first bag, even going bare hand on one catch just to take another few heartbeats from the coaches.
Kell Hennings rounded out the dig with the first of three strike outs in the game.
With that the Easterns held them to another run-less dig.
But the Jaguars pitcher earned a mention, putting the Easterns under some real pressure and they couldn’t put any more runs in.
Third dig the Easterns faced the challenge they knew was coming and the pressure of the grand final started showing with a few errors sneaking in.
Hennings finished the batters off though with more great pitching even though she’d been hit with a stray ball on a play to home.
By the end of the Jaguars bat and with time running out the Easterns faced a six-run deficit but they went out and got on with it.
Big hits from Astill and Sirolli along with great drive balls from Knight and Kemp saw the lead pegged back, before Bush drove in the tieing runs, stealing home, along with the championship run and the show.