By Roger Sidhom
For the second weekend in a row, the Latrobe Valley Baseball Association hosted the State Winter Championships. After the success of the Under 16’s tournament, the Under 18’s were on show. The tournament participants consisted of 6 representative teams from the Latrobe Valley, Diamond Valley, Geelong, Dandenong, Ringwood and Sunraysia.
Unfortunately day 1 of the tournament had to be abandoned due to the unrelenting weather. With only diamond 1 in Morwell in suitable playing condition, a solution was needed for the rescheduled games on day 2. Thankfully the Traralgon Baseball Club and their hard-working volunteers were up for the challenge, stepping in to provide a suitable second diamond to meet the needs of a revised tournament.
Competitions Coordinator, Kelsey Quinn, worked hard through the afternoon to re-organise the teams into two pools; the Morwell pool consisted of Geelong, Diamond Valley and Ringwood and the Traralgon pool hosted Sunraysia, Latrobe Valley and Dandenong. Tournament organisers also agreeing that the teams that topped both pools would be declared joint winners of the championship.
Game 1 in Morwell saw Geelong take on Ringwood. After a few early rain delays, the Geelong side were able to top Ringwood in the 1 hour and 30 minute game. Eventually winning 8 – 1 in three innings. This result later proving critical in determining the eventual winner of the tournament.
In Traralgon, game 1 of pool B saw Sunraysia run out with a massive 16 to 4 win over Latrobe Valley. Ruchel from Sunraysia starred with 2 hits and 5 RBI’s.
Round 2 in pool A had Geelong playing a double header against Diamond Valley, in the closest game of the tournament. Diamond Valley squeezed out an 8 - 7 victory to keep the Morwell bracket alive for game 3.
Back in Traralgon, Sunraysia were gearing up for their second game after their massive victory in game 1. They took on Dandenong with the opportunity to top the pool with a second win. Sunraysia were able to get out to an early 3 run lead, however Dandenong were not to be denied, scoring 2 runs of their own to keep the score close. Sunraysia were finally able to pick up an insurance run, running out 4 – 2 winners. With their second victory sealed, Sunraysia became the Traralgon pool B winner and the first team to be crowned champions of the Under 18’s State Winter Championships.
The dead rubber in Traralgon between Dandenong and Latrobe was played in wonderful spirit with Dandenong winning the contest, 7 runs to 1.
Finally, back in Morwell, the winner of pool A would come down to the final game. A Diamond Valley win would see them secure top spot. Geelong needing Diamond Valley to only score 1 run against Ringwood to secure a technical win of pool A based on run differential. Whilst Ringwood needed to shut out Diamond Valley to take an unlikely victory.
With Liam Evans on the mound, Diamond Valley were unable to score, while Ringwood’s offence exploded. They eventually won the game with an outstanding score of 12 – 0 in three innings, including a 7 run second inning. With that result in the books, Ringwood were crowned the second under 18s State Winter Champions.
Baseball Victoria would like to thank all the hard work of the Latrobe Valley Baseball Association, Morwell Baseball Club and the Traralgon Baseball Club for their hospitality and for putting on a magnificent tournament. We would also like to acknowledge the support of the Latrobe City Council and thank the State Member of Parliament for Morwell, Russell Northe who attended the closing ceremony to present medals to the winning Ringwood side.
We now look forward to the next two Winter Championships, the Under 12s and Under 14s, taking place at the Aerodrome Ovals in Mildura.
Under 14’s: 21st – 22nd July
Under 12’s: 28th – 29th July
Final Standings
Pool A
Pool B
Ringwood
Sunraysia
Geelong
Dandenong
Diamond Valley
Latrobe Valley