Game 1, 10.00AM Thursday 6 April 2017
Geelong Baycats v Sunraysia Giants
There was plenty of offence on show as Geelong and Sunraysia got their respective tournaments underway with a 20-10 score line reflective of some red hot bats.
A Harper Rickard inside the park homerun got Geelong off to the perfect start before Sunraysia were able to apply scoreboard pressure in every innings and come away with the win.
Sunraysia’s Noah Nichol’s brought Giant’s supporters to their feet with a long home run and after a complete team performance from an impressive Sunraysia team, the rest of the All-Star division has been put on notice.
Game 2, 10.00AM Thursday 6 April 2017
Game 3, 1.00PM Thursday 6 April 2017
Geelong Baycats v Northern Diamondbacks
With the Diamondbacks needing just three outs to put an end to this game early, Geelong rallied with a 10 run third inning to tie the game and almost steal an unlikely victory.
11 runs across the first two innings for the Diamondbacks and this game looked over, but it took seven lead changes against a brave Geelong team before the Diamondbacks could record the walk-off win.
Both teams emptied their benches with every player contributing on both sides of the baseball. Home runs to Joel Prpic (his second of the day) and Tim Liersch were talking points but there are 13 Geelong players and 14 Diamondback players that deserve to have their name mentioned in this report.
It's only day 1 but we could have already witnessed our game of the tournament. A terrific game from both teams.
Game 4, 1.00PM Thursday 6 April 2017
Game 5, 6.30PM Thursday 6 April 2017
Eastern Athletics v Southern Mariners
With both teams entering the game having recorded wins earlier in the day, the night game saw Nicholas Parton of the Athletics getting the start, matched up against Genevieve Beacom of the Southern Mariners.
Both pitchers were in control early, conceding a single run each in the first before pitch counts saw Parton exit the game in the middle of the second while Beacom got through 2.0 striking out five.
The Mariners bats caught fire in the second, busting the game open with a six-run inning. Charlie Pierson and Felix Brunner both taking the ball deep in the decisive inning.
To the Athletics credit they rallied in the fifth to reduce the margin to four before the game was closed out by the home run boys, Charlie Pierson in the fifth and Felix Brunner in the sixth.
Game 6, 9.00AM Friday 7 April 2017
| ALLSTARS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Southern Mariners | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 16 | ||||
| Sunraysia Giants | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Game 7, 9.00AM Friday 7 April 2017
Geelong Baycats v Eastern Athletics
The Baycats have almost caused a boil-over this morning taking it right up to the Eastern Athletics in an extremely high quality game.
Josh Smith was excellent as the Baycats starting pitcher, leading Geelong into the second with a 5-0 lead before the Athletics struck back with a massive eight run bottom of the second.
Cameron Bieker was excellent in relief for the Athletics, his 52 pitch effort kept his team in the contest during a testing part of the game.
With the bats it was James Richardson and James Patterson who pick up a couple of base knocks each for the Athletics, while a Maxton Sherry hit his first home run of the tournament for the Baycats with teammates Lucas Ash and Noah Brennan both recording multiple hit games.
| ALLSTARS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Geelong Baycats | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |||
| Eastern Athletics | 0 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | 13 |
Game 8, 1.00PM Friday 7 April 2017
Northern Diamondbacks v Sunraysia Giants
Game 7, 9.00AM Friday 7 April 2017
Geelong Baycats v Eastern Athletics
The Baycats have almost caused a boil-over this morning taking it right up to the Eastern Athletics in an extremely high quality game.
Josh Smith was excellent as the Baycats starting pitcher, leading Geelong into the second with a 5-0 lead before the Athletics struck back with a massive eight run bottom of the second.
Cameron Bieker was excellent in relief for the Athletics, his 52 pitch effort kept his team in the contest during a testing part of the game.
With the bats it was James Richardson and James Patterson who pick up a couple of base knocks each for the Athletics, while a Maxton Sherry hit his first home run of the tournament for the Baycats with teammates Lucas Ash and Noah Brennan both recording multiple hit games.
Game 8, 1.00PM Friday 7 April 2017
The Diamondbacks could not be stopped as they just hit hit hit in their afternoon match-up against the Sunraysia Giants.
Ned Hargreaves continues to turn heads. The young shortstop picking up four hits including two doubles, a triple and home run... Surely one of the coaches could have put the brakes on him and kept one of his doubles to a single to complete the cycle?
He definitely wasn’t alone though with Joel Prpic launching his third home run of the tournament to go with his two doubles. Tim Liersch had five hits including a home run while Bailey Wilson also had a pair of extra basehits.
Shintaro Katon was dynamite on the hill for the Diamondbacks. His 45 pitch outing included 37 strikes, 8 balls and six strikeouts in one of the most dominating pitching performances we’ve seen this week. Denzel Pelle-Lopetti was a brick wall behind the plate and gave all of the Diamondbacks pitchers plenty of confidence up on the hill.
For the Giants it was Jackson Malycha who led the charge with the bats, the only Sunraysia player to record multiple hits.
| ALLSTARS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Diamondbacks | 3 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 22 | |||||
| Sunraysia Giants | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Game 9, 1.00PM Friday 7 April 2017
Southern Mariners v Geelong Baycats
The Mariners have taken care of the Baycats to remain undefeated after four games of competition.
This was a game that seemed much closed than the score line suggested with one big inning from the Mariners deciding the ballgame.
Ryan Langworthy from the Mariners is a superstar in the making. He picked up three hits including a home run for a very productive afternoon. He was joined by Matthew Atkins who also picked up three hits as well as Millar Kuhl and Xander Gunn who each picked up two hits, including a double.
For the Baycats, Noah Brennan led the way with two extra base hits to continue his fantastic tournament. Noah’s impressed a lot of people this week with not just his ability, but leadership on the field and sportsmanship and if you haven’t seen this kid hit yet, do yourself a favour and check out the Baycat’s next game. It’s a treat to watch. Noah wasn’t alone though, he was joined on two hits by teammate Maxton Sherry.
| ALLSTARS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Southern Mariners | 2 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 22 | |||||
| Geelong Baycats | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
Game 10, 4.30PM Friday 7 April 2017
Northern Diamondbacks v Eastern Athletics
Game 9, 1.00PM Friday 7 April 2017
Southern Mariners v Geelong Baycats
The Mariners have taken care of the Baycats to remain undefeated after four games of competition.
This was a game that seemed much closed than the score line suggested with one big inning from the Mariners deciding the ballgame.
Ryan Langworthy from the Mariners is a superstar in the making. He picked up three hits including a home run for a very productive afternoon. He was joined by Matthew Atkins who also picked up three hits as well as Millar Kuhl and Xander Gunn who each picked up two hits, including a double.
For the Baycats, Noah Brennan led the way with two extra base hits to continue his fantastic tournament. Noah’s impressed a lot of people this week with not just his ability, but leadership on the field and sportsmanship and if you haven’t seen this kid hit yet, do yourself a favour and check out the Baycat’s next game. It’s a treat to watch. Noah wasn’t alone though, he was joined on two hits by teammate Maxton Sherry.
Game 10, 4.30PM Friday 7 April 2017
This game was a dead rubber of sorts but someone forgot to tell the teams. Spectators were treated to a combined 28 hits between the two teams with the two set to play each other in the morning in the first of the All-Star division’s semi finals.
Someone needs to check Joel Prpic’s bat as he continues to swing arguably the hottest stick at the tournament. Another four hits for the young lefty which included three singles and a double.
Nick Parton has looked dangerous all tournament and launched his first home run.
Game 11, 9.00AM Saturday 8 April 2017
Noah Brennan has launched the Baycats into a third place playoff game with a final inning home run.
The Baycats keep their hopes of qualifying Nationals alive with the win as they’ll play the loser of the preliminary final between the Athletics and Diamondbacks for the third position at Nationals.
Noah wasn’t alone in a strong hitting performance with Cooper Tipping picking up three base hits while Harper Rickard had two and teammate Will Cavanagh had a double.
Sunraysia have been impressive all week and despite the result should be proud of their performances all week long. Jackson Malycha and Lachlan Spratt had two singles a piece in their final game of the tournament while Noah Nichols, Ronan Scott and Bailey Edgar all hit doubles.
Game 12, 9.00AM Saturday 8 April 2017
SEMI FINAL - Athletics (3) v Diamondbacks (2)
The Athletics advance to the All-Star grand final and secure their place at Nationals with an epic 18-14 win over the Dimaondbacks this morning.
Four runs in the first inning off the back of three home runs from the top of the Dimaondbacks line-up (Ned Hargreaves, Tim Liersch and Harry Fitzgerald) wasn’t enough to deter the Athletics who rallied late with huge fourth and fifth innings.
Young Timothy Liersch started on the hill for the Diamondbacks and he’s a little star in the making. The right hander throws as hard as anyone at this age groups and was dominant through the beginning of the game.
Matthew Lavery went deep went deep for the Athletics for the first time this tournament and was also excellent in his relief pitching appearance. Evan Maury who also pitched in relief had two doubles while Nicholas Parton has caught fire at the right time of the tournament with a couple of base knocks of his own.
The Diamondbacks will now play Geelong for third place and the final position at Nationals while the Athletics advance to this afternoon’s final against the undefeated Mariners.
Game 13, 11.30AM Saturday 8 April 2017
Game 14, 2.15PM Saturday 8 April 2017
ALL-STARS GRAND FINAL
What a game of baseball we were treated to in the 2017 Little League All-Star final. It’s easy to forget these kids are 11 and 12 years old as both teams played beyond their years in both maturity and ability.
Genevieve Beacom started for the Mariners and if you haven’t seen this young lady pitch, do yourself a favour and head to our Facebook page. She has an action that even Big Leaguers would look to emulate. She was brilliant this afternoon, working her way through 4.2 innings, striking out 12 and not allowing a run.
Nicholas Parton wasn’t to be outdone for the Athletics. He threw four complete innings, allowing four runs but striking out eight in a game dominated by a couple of very talented hurlers.
There are too many to name as standout hitters. Every player stepped up when they were called upon to do a job and none of these kids should walk away from this tournament disappointed. All at Baseball Victoria are extremely excited to be sending such talented kids away to National Championships later this year.