It’s been all but smooth sailing for Crusaders Baseball Club who have sunked faster than the Titanic – and are anchored at the bottom of the Major League log.
But, unlike the ship which was thought to be unsinkable, the young Crusaders outfit still has a floating chance to survive in the top flight.
Leading from the mound, Jarrod Williams will look to steer the Grassy Park-based side to safety and avoid relegation.
With three rounds left to play in the league, all is not lost for Crusaders – who are yet to register.
Star pitcher, Williams, hopes to help his side turn things around. Williams said he’s confident his side will find their rhythm and that Crusaders have the potential to become a winning team.
But, until then, the former Fairmount High School pupil said they need to change their mindset, reduce their errors and play with more zest.
At the weekend, Crusaders faced last season’s champions Bothasig. However, Williams featured for the reserve side after picking up an injury during training, last week.
“The first team had a really tough game against Bothasig and lost 17-9. The guys did well and gave Bothasig a good run for their money,” said Williams.
“We gave unnecessary runs away due to errors and not picking up the coaches’ signals while batting, which cost us the game.
“I played in the second side because of my injury and had a decent performance. I threw 3.1 innings, picked up four strikeouts and two walks until my arm gave problems and I went off,” he said.
Williams said his side is always amped before games and start off well, but they keep letting themselves down in the latter stages of the game. Last week, they put third positioned Athlone Athletics on the back foot and took a 4-0 lead, before succumbing to a 11-4 defeat.
In that clash, Williams led from the mound and had a sensational performance against the high flying A’s, which featured SA men’s player Dean Jacobs at the opposite end.
“It was a good game and we gave the game away by not implementing what we do at training.
“The coach allowed me three innings before we changed pitchers. We weren’t hitting as well as we should and we scored all our runs at the start of the game.
“But, if we can maintain our performance from the first three frames against Athlone, and play that way against the other teams, then we can certainly become a winning side,” he said.
A young Williams first stepped up to the mound at the age of six for Crusaders. He recalls making his debut for Western Province in the under-10 and they went on to win the national championships that year.
“Winning that tournament encouraged me to keep going and to see how far I can go in the sport.
“Last year I was part of the under-18 WP side which dominated at the nationals. And, earlier this year, I got the go-ahead to start from the hill in the final against Gauteng,” said Williams.
“I was nervous when I first stepped up but I completed a six innings shutout against Gauteng and we won 10-0. I haven’t got the call-up for the SA side yet, but that is a goal I’m working towards,” he said.
At the weekend, Bellville Tygers increased their lead at the top of the table when they beat second placed Westridge Yankees 10-0.
While Tygers remain unbeaten this season, Williams and his teammates will need to dig deep when they face them this weekend in order to turn things around.
“It’s clear that we are not doing so well. For us to improve, I think we need to have a solid pitching rotation and look at playing a nine innings baseball game because we seem to drop our heads at the seventh innings,” said Williams.
“Against Tygers, we just need to clean up on our mistakes and play some hard baseball as we did against Athlone.
“Then, we can surely put up a good showing against the log leaders,” he said.