Hello and welcome to this weeks edition of the life and times of those involved in the Wangaratta Rangers Baseball Club. This weeks edition will be a little bit different to the past ones. You see Line Drive was away for Sunday’s game so he sent his apprentice Hanging Slider to look at today’s action. Here is how Hanging Slider saw the weekends game

Down the Middle by Hanging Slider
Line Drive was not at the game today and can be forgiven for thinking that the Rangers boys had a good day, when he was told they had only lost against Wodonga A by five runs. Wodonga A is shaping up to be one of the teams to beat, but the reality of it all was that Rangers had played one of their worst games this season. You see, Wodonga A’s had a severely depleted side with eight of their players unavailable and many of their new “B” side forced to top up the team. For Rangers it should have been a relatively simple task to shut them out and take home the win. Frenchie started off well on the mound for Rangers sending Wodonga packing with 3 up 3 down. He continued with some excellent pitching throughout the game until relieved by Jason Jonker who also put in a valiant effort.
Rangers started slowly with the bat scoring a couple of runs early in the game, but they soon slumped and didn’t score any more until the last dig. Their fielding let them down badly after the first innings with many basic errors. Regulation catches and ground ball putouts went begging. Whilst there were the beginnings of some excellent plays with hard ground balls being knocked down, the recovery pickup and throws were woefully of the mark. Wodonga capitalised on the errors scoring in most innings. It was not until the last innings of the game that Rangers finally did something right with another 3 up 3 down fielding dig before heading in to bat. With a sense of determination the boys knuckled down and had some great hits scoring two more runs and forcing some errors from Wodonga. With two down, bases loaded and Kyle “Thrillmore” Gilmore at bat it looked like we were set to score again. Gilly punched a nice shot out to centre field and unfortunately was caught out, but not before Rob “Beaker’ Barbour at third managed to score on the hit. Unfortunately the other runners on base did not realise it was only one out. They were forced to retreat back to their bases after the catch but for one it was too late. A putout at second base saw the end of the innings and the game with runners left on base. A final score of 10 – 5 left the Rangers lads feeling very unhappy with their performance. Needless to say there will be a focus on basic skills and communication at training in the next few weeks.
My Ranger Rules:
Round 1 kicked off with Rob “Beaker” Barbour doing his famous “Gourmet Chicken Schnitzel Burgers” with Chips on the side. From all accounts, most of the players thought it was a fair effort. The Judges agreed also, but scored fairly cautiously because it was the first round. The judges scored two 7’s and a 6 for a total of 20 out of 40, with the guest judge scores to be revealed at the final round of the competition to determine the winner.

Thanks Hanging Slider for your insight this week. Now back to what else has been going on.

Angus Young…what the?
If you follow Angus young on a variety of social media platforms you would have noticed this week he has taken on some strange selfie challenge of one a day without his shirt on. Must admit one of the more bizarre challenges. Although Angus has been quite creative on where he has taken his photos. Might have to involve fines master Daniel Griffin in determining a course of monetary compensation towards the trip for this one.

Happy Birthday Dill Pickle!
Over the weekend Dylan “Dillpickle” Cowan celebrated his birthday. One thinks it may have been a great weekend away playing one of the many multitude of activities that he undertakes. Rock climbing, watching boxing, playing basketball, being an all round great guy. From all of us at Wangaratta Rangers hope you had a great day!

Training on Wednesday will have a special focus.
Last week saw Kyle “Thrillmore” Gilmore deliver a drill that was creative and hard work to his fellow Ranger players, now it’s Scott “The Beard” Jenkins turn. He has given little away about the drill but my sources tell me that is simple and relevant to all who play in the Orange and Black! Come Wednesday for training at 6pm and more will be revealed then.

Need your Haircut Brian knows!
Not only do we talk about baseball on-line but talk about where do we find the best haircuts in Wangaratta. Bryan “Don’t call me Byron” Wilson was looking for a good haircut over the weekend. One thinks is it for him or for someone else? This scribe may believe it is for someone else. Still hope your question was answered satisfactorily Moose.

New caps!!!
Special mention goes to Rob “Butts” Seymour who has come through with the goods and new caps have looked to have been ordered. It is one of the missing pieces of the Rangers uniform puzzle that is going to be solved. With hoodies on order and new caps look out ladies of gentlemen of North Eastern Victoria, Wangaratta look sharp!

Cods update
Well not really an update just more of a hello out there to all the Cods members plying their baseball throughout Victoria. Cam “The Dodger” Rogers been busy giving us here at Wangaratta Rangers ideas for Wednesday night training activities. Last weeks was a doozy! Wonder if Tets has been on this show???

The Club stuff
Next weeks games will see both teams travel to Wodonga to play.
Rangers Orange Vs Porepunkah Panthers in the early game to start at 11.30.
Wodonga A’s Vs Rangers Black in the late game starting at 2.15pm
Committee Meeting this Wednesday night after training.
Tea this week is Pizza some come along for a piece or two.
Hoodies and caps are on order.
Scotty Jenkins has the training drill this Wedensday
End of Season trip date is yet to be determined
Follow us on twitter @WangRangers and find us on Facebook
https://wangarattarangers.teamapp.com/
http://www.wangarattarangers.baseball.com.au

Anyhow enough from me this week. Thanks to Hanging Slider for his writing while Line Drive was absent.
Most importantly
Go Rangers