The 2019/20 VSBL season is a big one for Tyler Luther-Wilson, as the standout catcher looks to go all the way with his Baycats family at Geelong Baseball Club.
After moving to the U.S. from New Zealand at age 12 and graduating from Fountain Hills High School in Arizona in 2017, Tyler came to Melbourne and joined the well-known Baycats club. He hasn’t looked back, embracing the Baycats community and working hard to keep getting better while also pursuing a university degree.
Now a month into the 2019/20 VSBL season, Tyler is confident the Baycats have what it takes to make it all the way to the Grand Final and bring home their second premiership in three years. Geelong won it all in the 2017/18 season over Blackburn, but missed out on back-to-back flags in March when they came up short against the same team. “We want to go to the championship again,” Tyler said. “Hopefully we see Blackburn and beat them.”
Geelong and Blackburn already faced off in rounds three and four, with each team taking a victory from low-scoring games. Tyler hopes he can keep improving to help his team make a big impact as the competition heats up. “I would like to have a better season than last season,” Tyler said. “I think I’m a little bit more confident, more comfortable with my team, with my swing, with the pitching staff so I’d like to put that all together.”
With years of daily practice in high school baseball, Tyler knows how important it is to stay on top of training in order to keep his skills sharp. While having days off has been an adjustment for the former high school athlete, he does appreciate having a bit of a break, as a few years back he suffered from an arm injury caused by overuse. He took almost a year off letting his arm heal while he played golf before coming to Australia and getting back into baseball.
Now as he turns his focus to this third season with the Baycats, Tyler aims to be more consistent than last season. “I started off pretty hot and then went cold hitting-wise during the middle of the season, but I was getting really comfortable towards the end and was hitting balls hard,” Tyler said. “Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get unlucky. As long as you take good swings, get good hits and hit the ball hard you’re doing something right.”
Tyler knows he can be successful with Geelong, where he enjoys the great sense of teamwork and community. “We have good facilities and everyone there is so nice, inviting and welcoming,” Tyler said. “Our team is really comfortable, we’re all pretty good mates with each other and that makes it really easy to go out there and play.”
For Tyler and his teammates, their easy comradery makes a big difference on and off the field. When one player is going through a rough patch or slow season, they help each other out. “With our swings, with our mental mistakes, we try to improve on that and we try to make our team good but otherwise it’s just a good team atmosphere.”
Tyler has some special memories from his time with the Baycats thus far, including hitting his first home run last season. “That was a really good feeling,” Tyler said. “We were playing at Sunshine with the wind blowing out and we ended up hitting twice as many home runs in that game as we hit all season. I loved getting in on the action as well, that was really fun.”
With a bright baseball future ahead of him, Tyler encourages others to get involved in the sport and remember that patience is key for anyone starting out. “You can’t give it a couple hours and say ‘Oh, I’m not really good at this, I’m not going to try it again.’ You have to grind it out,” Tyler said. “The catching, the throwing and the hitting are not in most other sports and it’s really hard to pick it up right away, so you need to give it a good go.”
Such perseverance pays off, especially for Tyler who finds great pride and joy in pursuing his passion for baseball as the Baycats set their sights on premiership glory. “I love it, I like going out there and playing,” Tyler said. “You can expect us to give it a good shot at the finals. I think we’ve got a strong team and we’re looking to get back to the same spot we were at in the last few years.”
Geelong currently sits in third place with a 3-3 record ahead of Saturday’s home game v Sandringham. The Baycats next series will be against a currently undefeated Sunshine team.