Richmond 5th in Venray Tournament A combined Richmond team failed to ignite at the annual Gijs Gomman Tournament held in the Dutch town of Venray, finishing in a disappointing 5th Place. The team, made up of most Flames, got off to a slow start on the Saturday losing 5-1 to the experienced Cardinals. Richmond then managed to thrash the hosts, Red Caps Venray 5-0 with Knights player Brain McKeown smashing as massive home run over the left field fence. To finish the day, Richmond blew a three run lead to eventually lose 4-3 against last years’ winners, The Indians. Errors again, costing the team dearly. On the Sunday, with the team unhappy with an early start combined with a long walk to the field, Richmond managed to take an early one run lead. It was short lasting, and Richmond lost another close game 2-1 to the eventual winners the OVVO Blue Marlins. The real action of the tournament was in Richmond’s last game of the tournament, which was billed as the battle for last place. Richmond came out swinging again the team from Thamen and managed to rack up 6 runs in an amazing first inning. Knights’ pitcher, Matthew Spaulding hitting a handy grand slam home run with two out certainly helped. Thamen, not wanting to lie down, pegged back the runs with a number of cheeky single base hits and smart base running. In the bottom of the final inning, Richmond were behind 7-6 and needed only two runs to win the game and not finish last. With two out, after Flames lead off Nigel Stephens was forced out at home plate, and bases loaded - Martin Visser hit a clutch single to tie the game. With ex-Flame Brad Crinion arriving especially from a holiday in Amsterdam for the last game, the decision was made that he pinch hit in an attempt to win the game (even though he was wearing board-shorts and sandals). As fate would have it the ball ended up against the right-field fence for the game winning single. Richmond winning a thriller 8-7 and finish an unlucky 5th out of the six teams competing with 2 wins and 3 losses. Final Standings 1 OVVO Blue Marlins (NL) 2 Indians (NL) 3 Cardinals (NL) 4 Red Caps Venray (NL) 5 Richmond Flames (GB) 6 Thamen (NL) Team Batting Statistics Stephens .200 1-5 (4xBB) Dellara .400 4-10 (2x3B) Bruce .285 2-7 (BB) Boardman .250 2-8 (BB, 2B) Visser .250 2-8 (BB) Shields .167 1-6 (BB) Flippance .000 0-4 Gandara .400 2-5 (2xBB) McKeown .444 4-9 (2B, HR) Spaulding .667 2-3 (3B, HR) Crinion 1.000 1-1

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