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Victoria fought hard on Day 3 of the 2023 Australian Youth Women's Championship but ultimately fell just short of victory.

During the morning game vs. Queensland, Lily McKenner had 2 RBIs and Ruby Benne singled and scored two runs. Victorian pitchers held QLD to three hits with Emma Sullivan, Eden Neave, Phoebe Martin, and Chelsea Nunn sharing duties on the mound.

In their second game of the day, Victoria took an early 1-0 lead over New South Wales, but the opposition fired back with seven runs in the second. Victoria did get three runs back in the third and another three in the fourth, but NSW put the game out of reach.

The final score was 12-7 to NSW, although Victoria outhit them 9-6. Eden Neave and Lily McKenner both hit big doubles and had 2 RBIs, while Amelia Wright and Emma Sullivan had two base hits. Ruby Benne and Billie McCulloch recorded one hit each.

McKenner, Wright, Morgan McConville, and Mackenzie Prentice-Evans put in work on the mound as well.

Victoria plays Western Australia at 12pm on Tuesday.

Victoria defeated New South Wales 9-4 to stay undefeated at the 2023 Australian Women's Championship on Monday night.

It was a rematch of the #AWC2022 game, which NSW won to secure gold in Adelaide. This time Victoria walked away winners, thanks to an impressive 13 hits vs. eight hits allowed.

It was scoreless until the bottom of the third, when Victoria scored three. NSW got one back in the top of the fourth but Victoria added four more with RBIs from Lili Cavanagh, Abbey McLellan, and Ruby Dale.

NSW made it 7-4 in the top of the fifth before Victoria scored two final runs. The sixth was scoreless and Allie Bebbere got out of a bases-loaded jam to close it out in the seventh. Bebbere struck out three in 2.1 innings after starter Jessica Johnson went 4.2 innings with two hits, two walks, three earned runs, and a strikeout.

Cavanagh went 3-for-3 with 3 RBIs and two runs scored. She joined Shae Lillywhite, McLella, and Abbey Kelly with extra-base hits. Lillywhite had three hits, with McLellan, Dale, and Maddy Patrick reaching base twice.

Now 4-0, Victoria takes on Queensland White at 1pm Tuesday as the women's tournament continues.

After back-to-back wins on day one, Victoria picked up another victory with a 12-4 result against New South Wales in the 2023 Australian Youth Women's Championship.

Victoria racked up eight hits while giving up just three. A pair of singles and walks made it a 2-0 ballgame in the bottom of the first, although NSW cut the lead in half their next time up.

A hit by pitch, three straight walks, and Ruby Benne's single made it 5-1 in the bottom of the second. The back-and-forth battle continued as NSW came within one in the third, but Victoria put the game out of reach with seven runs in the final frame.

Mackenzie Prentice-Evans, Chelsea Nunn, Emma Sullivan, Lily McKenner, and Benne all singled during the big inning.

Prentice-Evans threw the first two innings, with two hits, one earned run, and three strikeouts while Kendra Rutgers struck out one in an inning of work.

Benne and McKenner led the team with 3 RBIs each.

Victoria takes a 3-0 record into Monday's matchup with Queensland, starting at 9am.

Victoria remains undefeated at the 2023 Australian Women's Championship after defeating South Australia 4-0 on Sunday night.

Abbey Kelly threw a complete game shutout, giving up just three hits and striking out eight.

Victoria scored one in the second on a fielder's choice, and a few quiet innings followed before the three-run sixth. Abbey McLellan had a lead-off double and Maddi Weller reached on an error, with Jamie Bastian's base hit scoring the second run.

Lily Bell-Tanner scored two on a single, giving Victoria a bigger cushion going into the top of the seventh. SA got back-to-back singles with one out but a double play sealed the deal.

Now 3-0, Victoria takes on New South Wales at 5pm Monday as an action-packed week of women's baseball continues.

The 2023 Australian Youth Women's Championship opened at Melbourne Ballpark today, with Victoria winning two big games to start their campaign off right.

In the morning, Victoria snuck past South Australia 10-9, with Lily McKenner's single scoring Chelsea Nunn in the final inning to secure the win.

Victoria had four hits and gave up three, with seven runs coming in the first inning and another two in the second. South Australia scored one in the first and another in the second before seriously firing up their offense, scoring seven in the top of the third to tie it up at nine.

Nunn walked with one out in the bottom of the frame, followed by a walk to Emma Sullivan and McKenner's two-out winning hit. McKenner had a double and two singles throughout the game, with Victoria's other hit coming off the bat of Kendra Rutgers.

Emily Loong held SA to one hit in 1.1 innings while Isabella Lee-Young and Lacey Tompkins also pitched for Victoria.

Excited by the win, Victoria kept up the momentum in a 19-5 performance against Western Australia on Saturday afternoon. The team collected 12 hits and gave up just three.

Victoria opened with five runs and WA responded with five of their own, but the next few innings were more one-sided. The winners added eight runs in both the second and the third for a much more comfortable margin than game one.

Morgan McConville, Amelia Wright, and Phoebe Martin held things down on the mound while McKenner doubled twice for 3 RBIs. Emily Brennan and Eden Neave also had extra-base hits, while Martin knocked in three on two singles.

Brennan, Neave, and Isabella Lee-Young recorded 2 RBIs apiece as Billie McCulloch and Ruby Benne also brought runners home.

Victoria heads into Sunday's 3pm game vs. New South Wales with a 2-0 record.

Victoria has scored 37 runs and given up just four in the first two days of the 2023 Australian Women's Championship.

After a 14-0 win against Queensland Maroon to start the tournament, Victoria carried the momentum into Saturday's matchup with NSW Development, dominating at the plate for a 23-4 victory.

Victoria scored seven runs in both the first and the second. Lili Cavanagh and Shae Lillywhite doubled in the first while Jessica Brown and Jamie Bastian singled, too. The next inning saw Lilly Simpson double and Nyah O'Brien single to keep up the pressure.

They went on to add two more in the fourth and seven in the sixth, outhitting their opponents 12-7. O'Brien had 4 RBIs total as Abbey Kelly knocked in three. Lillywhite, Cavanagh, and Simpson all had extra-base hits on the day while Bastian, Johnson, Simpson, Maddi Weller, and Allie Bebbere singled.

Gabby Bevan led the charge on the mound, giving up just one run on one hit over two innings, striking out three. Maddy Patrick struck out four in two innings while Jasmine Bentley and Abbey McLellan also contributed quality innings.

Now 2-0, Victoria plays South Australia at 7pm Sunday before a blockbuster vs. New South Wales at 5pm Monday.

Victoria is off to a great start at the 2023 Australian Women's Championship, thanks to a 14-0 performance over Queensland Maroon on Friday afternoon.

Victoria got started early, scoring four runs in the first inning with Lili Cavanagh's double, Maddy Patrick's groundout, and Ruby Dale's single. A bases-loaded walk by Jamie Bastian added another run in the second.

Victoria racked up 13 hits. Cavanagh, Abbey Kelly,  Shae Lillywhite, and Abbey McLellan all went on to collect multiple hits as Victoria scored four runs in the third, three in the fourth, and a final two in the sixth.

Starter Allie Bebbere threw four scoreless innings with three hits, one walk, and a strikeout. Jessica Johnson secured the shutout with two scoreless innings.

It was a clean fielding day for Victoria as McLellan had five chances in the field, the most on the team.

Overall, Victoria had 13 hits compared to Queensland's seven. Kelly doubled twice while McLellan, Cavanagh, and Jasmine Bentley also recorded extra-base hits.

Cavanagh, Lillywhite, and McLellan knocked in two runs each, with Bastian, Bentley, Ruby Dale, Maddy Patrick, Maddi Weller, and Kelly recording one RBI each.

Victoria's next game is a 2PM matchup with NSW Development on Saturday, while the youth women's team starts their campaign vs. South Australia at 11am.

Best of luck to our Victorian State Teams as the Australian Women's & Youth Women's Championships get underway at Melbourne Ballpark from Friday.

Check out our tournament matchups and head down to the ballpark for an action-packed week of women's baseball!

In early 1999 in Melbourne’s western suburbs, 20 of the best women’s baseball players in Victoria would step onto the artificial turf at the Ballpark in Altona, beginning a legacy that would remain unrivalled 25 years later. 

Victoria boasts a rich history of baseball dating back to the mid-1800s, with girls getting their first taste in 1915 via the Victorian Public Schools Championships, while a senior Victorian side contested the short-lived All-Australian Women’s Baseball Championships in the 1930s. 

Sadly both competitions would fold in the 1940s, and fifty years would pass before the state would see a return of organised women’s competitions to the diamond.

This welcomed return came after Victorian Baseball Association’s (VBA) Development Officer Grant Weir and VBA President Peter Dihm worked tirelessly to establish Australia’s first stand-alone women’s competition.  

For its inaugural 1994/95 season, the league attracted nearly 50 teams. And with the standard of the fledgling competition rising year on year, it would take only five seasons for state representation opportunities to be offered to women.

“We made some phone calls to check out what the appetite was for it and there was appetite,” explained Weir, who represented the Australian National Team at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games. “At our first tryouts, we had a stack of women turn up, around 80, and we got a pretty bloody good team out of it in the end.”

Weir’s squad reigned supreme with a stunning undefeated run across the first three Championships held in Melbourne and Sydney’s Blacktown Olympic Park between 1999-2001. The Victorian dominance was punctuated with 18 of the 20 selections to the inaugural Australian team in 2001. 

“From the time we had trials and picked the team, we trained our backsides off, and some of the women still come back to me to say thank you for doing that,” said Weir. “I remember the other teams in the first few years were just really intimidated by our players, the professionalism of what they saw, how our team went about it.”

Weir stepped down following the three-peat, revealing his tenure left an impact that went well beyond his perfect record and swag of trophies. 

“I often say it's great to have strong, independent and intelligent women in your life and for three years, I had 30 or 40 of them in my life. So that was pretty cool for me,” revealed Weir. 

Listen to Grant discuss the history here.

As it heads into its 25th year, the blue of the Big V is still revered across the country, due in large part to its unequalled Championship record.

The team has featured on the podium in all 22^ editions of the event, with its 13 championship victories nearly double that of their closest rival in New South Wales. A runner-up seven times, Victoria has only failed to make the Championships’ gold medal game on two occasions.   

In a romantic script fit for any sport documentary feature, Victoria will host the 2023 National Championships on the same hallowed turf of the team’s first appearance in 1999 - Melbourne Ballpark in Altona.

Inaugural team member Samantha Hamilton, who represented Victoria at the first sixteen Championships between 1999-2014, returns in 2023 at the helm as head coach in the team’s silver anniversary year. 

“The traits that Grant Weir instilled in us 25 years ago, those of hard work, commitment, dedication and professionalism, have had a huge and lasting impact on the sport,” said Hamilton, who took the reins as Head Coach in 2022. 

“And while we have seen quite a few uniform colour changes, new players and coaches come and go, one thing that never goes away is the utmost pride you feel when you represent Victoria. It is still as strong as ever.”

Hamilton’s love for the team runs deeper than any possible achievements she could make as a player or coach, with the proud Victorian playing an integral role in the team’s 25th anniversary project. 

 

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From 2023, the team has adopted a selection order tradition whereby each player will receive a unique number that represents the order in which they were selected. 

In total, 406 selections have been made across 24^ Victorian teams since 1999, with 102 unique player selections receiving a Victorian cap. Member of the inaugural 1999 team Emma Binks was awarded number 1, with 17-year-old Nyah O’Brien the newest to the team at number 102. 

“The introduction of selection numbers is a confirmation to all 102 Victorian Women’s State Team players that they are a key part of our sport’s history in Victoria,” said Baseball Victoria CEO Chet Gray.  

“In particular, we wish to recognise the players in the inaugural teams who broke barriers in the sport and laid the foundation for today’s generation, but we recognise all players for having contributed to the team's stunning journey across the last 25 years.”

The alumni group will gather for a special function at the 2023 Australian Women’s and Youth Championships on Monday 10 April at Melbourne Ballpark. 

Victorian Women’s Team Selection Numbers 

Binks, Emma 1999 1
Clark, Diane 1999 2
Clark, Pamela 1999 3
Finch, Paula 1999 4
Gosstray, Narelle 1999 5
Greenwood, Caroline 1999 6
Hamilton, Samantha 1999 7
Hough, Jade 1999 8
Kemp, Kathy 1999 9
Lee, Deanne 1999 10
Lord, Sue-Anne 1999 11
Manzie, Kelly 1999 12
O'Neil, Julie 1999 13
Ross, Shandelle 1999 14
Row, Catherine 1999 15
Ryan, Angela 1999 16
Stokes, Terina 1999 17
Tamburrino, Alisa 1999 18
Wearne, Simone 1999 19
Whitaker, Melissa 1999 20
Cain, Nicole 2000 21
Coombes, Rebecca 2000 22
Grant, Marion 2000 23
Holien, Ella 2000 24
Lillywhite, Shae 2000 25
Marklew, Shelli 2000 26
Papanicolaou, Paula 2000 27
Brisbane, Naomi 2002 28
Palatsides, Maryanne 2002 29
Passlow, Kathy 2002 30
Thompson, Jessica 2002 31
Busbridge, Layla 2003 32
McCann, Amy 2003 33
Whittam, Clare 2003 34
Davidson, Ailsa 2004 35
Hutton, Leanne 2004 36
Walker, Alana 2004 37
Gregory, Mel 2005 38
Kitta, Megumi 2005 39
Adams, Samantha 2006 40
Holmes, Jen 2006 41
Mann, Davina 2006 42
Smith, Alexis 2006 43
Strugnell, Claudia 2006 44
Welsh, Kathy 2006 45
Pastowski, Emma 2007 46
Taylor, Siobhan 2007 47
Anglin, Leslie 2008 48
Brown, Victoria 2008 49
Gell, Bronwyn 2008 50
Howard, Ursula 2008 51
Collins, Erin 2009 52
Flanigan, Sinead 2009 53
Foura, Courtney 2009 54
Pedersen, Vibeke 2009 55
Matsumoto, Kei 2010 56
McKay, Taylor 2010 57
Nakashima, Risa 2010 58
Collins, Amy 2011 59
Binks, Sophie 2012 60
Cannington, Belinda 2012 61
Jackson, Hannah 2012 62
Johnson, Jessica 2012 63
McLellan, Abbey 2012 64
Mills, Autumn 2012 65
Psota, Kate 2012 66
Loon, Shirlie 2013 67
Mcintosh, Cecilia 2013 68
Penny, Paris 2013 69
Asay, Amanda 2014 70
French, Emma 2014 71
Kelly, Abbey 2014 72
Sheldon-Collins, Casey 2014 73
Clifford, Vanessa 2015 74
Deeble, Samantha 2015 75
Harber, Nadine 2015 76
Page, Georgia 2015 77
Tanaka, Risa 2015 78
Byrne-Connell, Sinead 2016 79
Cedelland, Brittney 2016 80
Abe, Rieko 2016 81
Davis, Madeline 2016 82
Goodrope, Ellen 2016 83
Collis, Erin 2017 84
Torrington, Amanda 2017 85
Bastian, Jamie 2019 86
Bebbere, Allie 2019 87
Bevan, Gabby 2019 88
Devine, Emily 2019 89
Doty, Morgan 2019 90
Gildemacher, Famke 2019 91
Patrick, Maddy 2019 92
Beacom, Genevieve 2020 93
Cavanagh, Lili 2020 94
Davenport, Emma 2020 95
Bentley, Jasmine 2022 96
Bell-Tanner, Lilian 2022 97
Brown, Jessica 2023 98
Dale, Ruby 2023 99
Simpson, Lilly 2023 100
Weller, Maddi 2023 101
O'Brien, Nyah 2023 102

List updated April 15.

^2020 & 2021 Championships were not held due to COVID, but a team was selected in 2020 before it was cancelled. 

Follow #AWC2023 & #AYWC2023

The 2023 Australian Women’s and Youth Women’s Championships get underway at Melbourne Ballpark later this week. Stay tuned for more updates and make sure to follow along with Victoria’s journey on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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