THORPE RETURNS TO THE DRAGONS LAIR            

It’s been a long time coming but on Saturday we finally got to see our very own Lewis Thorpe take the mound for Doncaster after playing Major Lague Baseball! A product of the Doncaster junior system Thorpe was the 34th Australian to play Major League Baseball when he made debut 30th June 2019. Ironically 34 is the number that Thorpe has always worn for the Dragons.

Whilst there were sure to be butterflies after such a long stint on the sidelines rehabbing from injury this writer doubts that there would be a better place to calm those nerves than the playing at our home ground Deep Creek. Thorpe promptly fired in a first strike and then his first K as he cruised through the first inning. The second inning had him give up a hit and find himself in the slightest of trouble, but he was able to shut down the Melbourne hitters to finish his day with a clean slate.

Thorpe would say after the game that “I felt really comfortable out there and back in a Dragons jersey! I’ve worked hard to get to this point and happy to be back out there. It wasn’t the result we wanted today but the boys fought hard, and we will get back out there next week”. The best part is that Thorpe has pulled up well and will look to extend out to 3 innings next week as he looks to extend himself out for his return to professional baseball with the Melbourne Aces.

Perhaps lost in the return of Thorpe was the fact that we jumped out to an early 3-0 then 6-0 lead but although we scored again in the 4th, 5th and 8th innings it seemed to unravel from there particularly in the 4th inning where balls just seemed to find the places we weren’t along with several mental lapses as we let four Demons runs in. Similar damage was done in the 8th and 9th innings in terms of runs which we were unable to return favour on. Meaning we drop to 1-3 on the year but there is a long way to go.

As Coldplay once sang, nobody said it was easy! The Dragons will look to continue their solid training and get themselves back in the win column next week against Fitzroy at Merri Park.