The 15U team played a close game against Germany yesterday in their last game of the IBAF 15U World Cup, marginally losing 5-6.
Australia won four out of nine games at the World Cup with a 9th place finish and it proved to be an important learning process for their future development. Head coach Jason Pospishil explained, this “is the next generation of players that we hope to represent Australia and the experience has been invaluable; it will be a huge factor in their continued baseball development.”
The 15U team will have the opportunity to explore a local island and experience Mexican culture today prior to travelling back to Australia tomorrow.
Japan v Australia
Game Highlight: Josh Bedggood pitched 4.3 innings only allowing Japan to score 2 runs.
Australia v Brazil
Game Highlight: Jesse Williams went four from five at bats with an RBI and a stolen base and great relief pitching from Justin Burke.
Italy v Australia
Game Highlights: Jordan Busch threw well in the heat, three RBIs from Mitchell Edwards as well as great catching throwing out several runners and Jack Dunn went three from three.
Germany v Australia
Game Highlights: A triple from Jess Williams, Dermot Fritsch and Justin Burke held the Germans scoreless in the last innings.
Today the USA will play Japan for the Gold Medal at 10:00am AEST.
For more updates about the national teams visit baseball.com.au or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
A direct link to the interview with Shae is here.
2014 marks the 14th year that Shae Lillywhite will pull on the Australian jersey and represent her country. We would forgive people who thought that this was the same article that gets pumped out once or twice a year when Shae is selected to an Aussie Squad or Team – but what we wouldn’t forgive is anyone believing that making an Australian Team is just something that ‘happens all the time’.
Lillywhite lives in Somerville on the Mornington Peninsula and at 29 she is now the most capped female player to have represented Australia. Standing at a mere 158cm tall, at first glance she doesn’t look like the type of hitter who would win Women’s World Cup hitting titles, play herself onto World All-Star Teams, or make an impact as one of the best gloves in the middle infield for over a decade. But that’s exactly what she has done
Springvale Baseball club is Shae's home and they alone have produced 7 Australian representatives over the past 14 years – Ella Holien, Jade Hough, Shae Lillywhite, Kellie Manzie, Shandelle Ross, Cat Row and Simone Wearne – but it is Lillywhite who has taken women's baseball to the next level.
It’s fantastic every time you get to earn your place on an Australian Team”, she said. “But we have a great team, and a really good program at the moment that is looking for success. We certainly aren’t going to Japan just to make up the numbers. It’s time we challenged with the best”.
This article is a shorter version of the original article, written by Simone Wearne,which appears on the Springvale Lions Baseball website and can be linked to here.
More information about the World Cup Tournament can be found here.
By Cam Gleeson
(Follow Cam on Twitter @valiantcam)
The Australian participants for the 2014 Cal Ripken World Series have arrived in Aberdeen, Maryland, USA. The series is home to some of the best eleven and twelve year old baseball players in the world, and consists of ten US teams and six international teams.
While the Australian Cal Ripken team is in Aberdeen, Maryland they will watch the Washington Nationals play, as well as see the minor league Aberdeen Ironbirds.
Australia will play their first game versus Mexico on the 9th of August at 3:00 pm (Sunday 10th of August at 5:00am AEST). Their first game will be followed by games against Canada, Republic of Korea and New Zealand.
2014 Cal Ripken World Series Participants:
Ky Jackson NSW
Ethan Stacy NSW
Aidan Torpey NSW
Zachary Lawrence NSW
Caleb Shepherd NSW
Travis Bazzana NSW
Brendan Bidois QLD
Zac Mansfield QLD
Luke Socic VIC
Jarryd Wood VIC
Michael Tovey WA
Kurtis King WA
Mitchell Schofield WA
Mitchell Chase WA
Matthew Martin WA
Coaching Staff:
Dean Marnell- Manager
Andy Kyle- Assistant Coach
Mark Shipley- Assistant Coach
Natalie Todd- Executive Officer
For more information about the team visit baseball.com.au or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. You can also view photos from the event through the official Cal Ripken World Series Instagram page.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Area University Baseball League team (SBBL) will be playing the Queensland Under 25 All-Stars in the 50th Anniversary SBBL Australia Friendship Cup starting tomorrow. All the games will be played at the Palm Meadows Baseball Complex on the Gold Coast from the 9th to the 11th of August.
The Baseball Down Under program aims to bring elite teams from Asia and North America to play tournaments against Australia’s future stars. It provides an opportunity for Australian baseball players to experience and learn from other varied baseball cultures.
The SBBL All-Star team will consist of players from various Tokyo Metropolitan area universities including Tokai University, the recent champions of the All Japan University Baseball Championships. Tokai University were crowned the best baseball team out of 378 university baseball clubs in Japan, winning their first title since 2001.
The Queensland team will play 4 games against the Japanese team as a warm up to the Under 25 National Championships in late Septemeber.
For live scoring, stats, results and rosters visit the Baseball Down Under page on baseball.com.au or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
The World Children’s Baseball Fair is underway in Ehime, Japan until the 7th of August.
The nine-day WCBF was established to create an environment of understanding and cultural exchange through the celebration of baseball.
It includes 15 teams from around the world participating in baseball clinics, cultural events and tourists trips. This year Australia has sent five representatives from four states to attend: Lucinda Jane Cavanagh-Bailey (QLD) , Michael Amir (NSW), Rhiannon Bennett (NSW), Daniel Stephenson (WA), and William Richardson (VIC).
The day is started with baseball clinic where they are put through drills and game plays to help them grow as baseball players. They are trained by coaches from the United States, Puerto Rico, Italy, Netherlands and Japan.
The afternoons are filled with exciting cultural activities, from visiting the national science museum to learning to play traditional Japanese drums. A goodwill party saw each country put on a performance, with the Australian representatives singing 'I am Australian'.
Today they will play in a round robin style tournament consisting of five games before preparing to head back to Australia.
For more updates about the WCBF visit baseball.com.au or the official WCBF website.
The first round of the 2014 15U Baseball World Cup is complete with Australia winning their last game against Argentina 16-3.
The game was tied 1 all in the second when play had to be suspended due to an electrical storm, and the game was restarted early this morning.
After a scoreless first inning, Australia put three runs on the board from three walks, a sacrifice fly and in a good piece of two out clutch hitting a two run double from Jake Amos. Argentina didn’t let them keep the lead for long scoring three of their own runs, however Australia was determined to win their third game of the tournament. With bats exploding another 6 runs were added to the scoreline in the 3rd, and 7 in the 5th resulting in a final score of 16-3.
In round 1 Australia played 5 games winning 3 and losing 2, resulting in a third place finish for the round. They will now form a pool with teams who finished 3rd and 4th in their respective pools.
Australia v Lithuania
Hong Kong v Australia
Australia v Cuba
Venezuela v Australia
Australia v Argentina
Australia will play Japan Wednesday 6 August at 4:00pm (Thursday 7 August at 8:00am AEST) in Culiacan, followed by Brazil, Italy and Germany.
For more team updates visit baseball.com.au or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
Saturday saw Australia secure their second win of the 2014 15U World Cup in Mexico, defeating Hong Kong 14-2. Once again Australia was able to add runs to the board early on, showing a 10 run lead going into the fourth. Jess Williams continued his hot hitting streak, and Thomas Holland threw well striking out six and only giving up one hit.
A tougher competitor yesterday saw Australia defeated by Cuba 2-12 in nine innings. Australia started off strong keeping Cuba from scoring, however Cuba took every opportunity possible to add to their score line resulting in Australia’s first lost of the tournament.
Australia will play current world champs Venezuela today at 8:00pm (Noon AEST) in a must win game.
You can follow a live stream of the game through internetv.tv for a small subscription fee.
For more team updates visit baseball.com.au or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
If you are having trouble with the link below you can listen to the announcement of the MVP players for each team via a direct link here.
Interview with Simon Myles of the DBA.
Interview with Shanhan Barrot, Sunraysia Under 12 coach 2014.
Ringwood Black and Dandenong both came into the final game of the Under 12 State Championships tied at 4 wins and 1 loss apiece. So again the final round (6) match shaped up as an impromptu final with the winner going home with silverware.
Tyler Evans was the starting pitcher for Ringwood and he looked every bit the Ringwood tournament MVP in the first innings when he got 2 Ks. Josh Ashen of Dandenong picked up with the bat where he and left off with the ball, he hit so hard that he knocked the glove off the shortstop. Blake Holding of Dandenong wasted no time and scored Ashen on a RBI single to 8. Dandenong then added 2 more runs and looked in control early, but Ringwood had other ideas.
Mitch Thomas opened up with a triple (the first of three for him) for Ringwood in the 3rd Innings. Phoenix Beck then reached for a pitch that cleared the infield and batted in Thomas. This set the scene for Kurtis Smith who then got his second hit of the day and batted both runners in to tie the game 3-3. Dandenong looked a bit shocked when Smith was then also batted in by Lachie O’Connor and Ringwood went ahead 4-3.
Kynan Jones took the mound for Ringwood after some great pitching from Tyler Evans. Blake Holding (Dandenong) got his second hit with an RBI single after a walk and the score was even again at 4-4. Ben Campbell singled to left and Sean Dunn did the same to load them up for Bertucci, who looked ready to roll, but O’Connor for Ringwood made a great play to the plate to get the runner on the force and keep the scores where they were with 2 out. Ashen added to his outing when he hit to left to get 2 go ahead runs in restoring the Dandenong lead with the score at 6-4. Jones made a come-back look possible with his non-chalent style, taking a come-backer on the mound to end the inning but Ringwood had all the work to do, down by 2 runs with time running out.
Ringwood were aggressive with the bat in the last but Blake Holding (Dandenong) was up for it when he added to his match winning performance and made a clutch catch at 1st base in front of the Ringwood dugout. The pressure was on and the championship was on the line when Fairweather, the Dandenong centrefielder, made a huge throw to catch a runner stretching for 3rd base and the second out of the final innings.