FINAL-BALL FOUR WINS GRAND FINAL
TOM Preedy felt sick to the stomach.
Taking guard for the last ball of the grand final, with his team needing three runs to win, the 12-year-old Alexander Thomson batsman had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
But with a fierce swing of the bat, and a thick outside edge in fading light, Preedy was an instant hero in Friday night’s under-13 Hansen grand final against Geelong City Hemley.
“It was full, swinging out and I edged it and it went for four,” Preedy said.
“It was quite dark and I couldn’t really see it, so it was pretty much luck. I just threw everything at it and I was just hoping it went for four.”
As the ball raced to the boundary, Preedy was mobbed by his Alexander Thomson Verdenius teammates, who streamed on to the field at Hickinbotham Oval in Eastern Gardens.
“It was surreal, it really was,” Vikings coach Dale Ringin said.
“The parents got out there (to celebrate) faster than the kids. He (Tom) ran through, dropped the bat and just kept running and he got mobbed, so it was a pretty exciting moment.
“I’m still in a bit of shock to be honest. It was a phenomenal finish. He shut his eyes and swung real hard, and I stood on the boundary and watched the ball go sailing to the boundary and I thought, ‘We’ve won’.”
While he appeared composed under pressure, Preedy said he felt the pinch in the moments before the bowler steamed in.
“They were yelling, ‘C’mon boys’, and putting pressure on me, but I knew if I hit it I’d win the game for my team,” he said. “So I just wanted to bash it as hard as I could, but I was nervous and I felt sick.”
Preedy had earlier set the foundations for the run chase of 168, retiring on 18, but the Vikings soon found themselves in trouble as wickets tumbled.
The youngster returned to the crease in the last over and found himself on strike for the final delivery of the game.
But in fading light, with the game stretching to 8pm, Preedy produced the goods.
And his coach never doubted the right-hander’s ability to hit the winning runs.
“I had said to him, ‘You’re my pinch-hitter tonight and I want you to go for it . . . swing the bat and make as many as you can’,” Ringin said.
“I had confidence in him. If anyone was going to do it, it was going to be him.”