The marathon man lasted all nine innings on the mound and delivered more than 130 pitches to guide the Rams to a much-needed 4-2 win over Malvern on the road at Kooyong Park in Kooyong.

Rams player manager Josh Meddings said the star of the day was throwing at breakneck speed from first to last pitch.

"He was still throwing hard in the ninthm he observed from the sidelines.

"It wasn't a matter of his arm falling off and not having anything behind it.

"He pitched fantastic - it was one of the best games Ive seen him throw."

There was a lot riding on the arm of Malthouse.

The Rams were in danger of slumping to sixth successive loss and going winless through November.

Instead, they returned to the winner's circle and have a favourable draw in the four games before the Christmas break.

Malthouse was backed up by some outstanding offence and defence.

Liam Vicary-Lovegrove and Matthew Lawman were stand-outs at-bat.

The latter was a livewire patrolling the infield at shortstop.

"The guys backed him up in the field with some nice fly balls being taken and some nice ground balls from shortstop," Meddings said.

"The guys in the outfield did a fantastic job."

Malthouse was the man. The one-time Victorian under-18 representative controlled the flow of the game from start to finish.

His coach and dad, Darren, quizzed him about his freshness and he insisted on lasting the nine innings.

"In the norm, it's probably a little bit much," Meddings said of the performance.

"You don't see a lot of pitchers going for that long many nowadays.

"But you try dragging him off that mound kicking and screaming and he'll end up throwing the ball at you! He worked hard, dug deep and to his credit was still throwing well in the ninth inning and came away with a fantastic win."

The Rams will host the sixth-placed Upwey-Ferntree Gully Tigers - a team they conquered 7-3 in their last meeting - at KC White Reserve in Williamstown on Sunday at 3.30pm.

"Thats a must-win game," Meddings said. "It's one of those games we feel as though we can't let slip away if we want to get some momentum going."