SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BASEBALL LEAGUE INC.
ANNUAL REPORT
2015/16 BASEBALL SOUTH AUSTRALIA
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Elected Meetings Attended Mark Snelgrove President 2015 9 Mark Brougham Operations 2015 10 Karen Phillips Marketing 2015 8 Annette Fidge Finance 2015 6 Lawrie Moore Player & Coach Development 2015 10 Tony Catt Youth 2014 8 Vacant Affiliations - -
BASEBALL SA STAFF
Nathan Davison Chief Executive Officer Renae Roach Finance Matthew Williams Player Pathway & Development Manager Laura Bond Administration & Events Landon Hernandez State Director of Coaching Bianca Smith Competitions & Member Coordinator Andrew Scott Operations Manager Lynton Arscott Adelaide Bite Eric Balnar Adelaide Bite Sam Finn Adelaide Bite
PATRON
Terry Evans
VICE PATRONS
Dr Roger Capps Howard Norman Ron Wright Ken Wesslink
HERITAGE COMMITTEE
Alan Waldron, AM (Chair) Robert Laidlaw Ron Chandler Gordon Penhall Phil Burgess Doug White
1 South Australian Baseball League Inc. CONTENTS
Page No. President Report 7 Chief Executive Officer Report 8 Finance Director Report 11 Audited Financial Statements 12 Diamond Sports Report 17 Australian Junior League Championships Report 18 Player Pathway & Development Manager Report 19 Schoolboys Report 21 Junior Awards 22 Senior Awards 23 Baseball Australia Hall of Fame Inductee 27 Heritage Committee Report 28 State Director of Coaching Report 29 Player & Coach Development Director Report 31 Operations Reports 33 Youth Director Report 35 Marketing Director Report 36 SA Scorers Association Report 37 Umpire Awards 39 BUASA Report 40 State Director of Umpiring Report 41 Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program Report 43 State Team Reports 44 Adelaide Bite Academy Report 47 Women’s Baseball League Report 48 SA Winterball Association Report 49 Division 1 Grand Final Report 51 Division Premiership Tables 53 Northern T-Ball Program Report 61 School Clinics & Training Camps Report 62 Little League Team Reports 63 Junior League Team Reports 67 Senior League Team Reports 69
2 South Australian Baseball League Inc. STRATEGIC INTENT
REDUCE FINANCIAL BURDEN ON CLUBS
- Reduce SABL overheads by reviewing all costs - Implement cost savings - Increase outside revenues through sponsorship events, donations and grants
PROVIDE VALUE FOR MONEY PRODUCTS
- More Junior and Senior games played - Development programs - Venue and training facilities
IMPROVE
- Improve club to league and league to club interactions - Provide even better governance from board - Increase our service levels - league - Improve the level of responsibility - clubs
SUPPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURE
- Invest in affiliations - scorers and umpires - Refine integration
RULES AND CONDITIONS
- Conduct an overview of the current playing rules and conditions - Review, replace and or change by-laws - Implement policies and procedures
INCREASE AWARENESS
- Within our local geographical regions - Within our country geographical regions - Through brand alignment with Adelaide Bite
PLAYER DEVELOPMENT
- Grass Roots awareness programs - Implement Bite Baseball Academy (BBA) - Increase Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program (MLBAAP) and College Athletes - Innovative coaching programs 3 South Australian Baseball League Inc. Baseball SA would like to thank our valued sponsors, affiliations and corporate partners for their ongoing support. We look forward to their continued partnership.
Affiliations:
CORPORATE PARTNERS:
sponsors:
charity of choice:
4 South Australian Baseball League Inc. LIFE MEMBERS
1922 Geo Chapman* 1994 - 95 Bert Haynes* 1922 Claude Ewers* 1995 - 96 Gordon Penhall 1922 Frank Ewers* 1995 - 96 Alan Waldron AM 1922 Rue Ewers* 1996 - 97 Peter Dixon 1926 Syd Smith* 1998 - 99 Hugh Franke* 1930 Norrie Claxton* 1999 - 00 Ron Chandler 1932 Wally Buchanan* 1999 - 00 Lionel ‘Nobby’ Clark* 1937 Len C Poole* 2001 - 01 Kevin Jennings 1938 Perce Doolan* 2001 - 01 Peter Kemp 1938 Paddy Ohlstrom* 2001 - 02 Paul Begg 1938 Bill Wiles* 2002 - 03 Peter Fischer 1944 Charles Catt* 2003 - 04 Bob Abbey 1948 Alby Bartless* 2003 - 04 Arthur MacDonald 1949 Ron Sharpe* 2004 - 05 Greg Bradshaw 1950 Fred Mann* 2004 - 05 Ron Harvey AM 1951 Martin Kriewaldt* 2005 - 06 Brian Addison 1956 Ron Scott* 2005 - 06 Jim Wilton 1958 Henley Jones* 2006 - 07 David Mundy 1959 Andy Buchanan* 2007 - 08 David Hutton 1960 Byron Ascione* 2008 - 09 Norm ‘Chalky’ White 1961 Laurie LeCornu* 2009 - 10 Bob Neiswander 1963 Bill Stephens* 2010 - 11 Brian Cakebread 1965 Alan Branstrom* 2010 - 11 Ken Kobayashi 1966 Claude Thorpe* 2011 - 12 Kevin Greatrex 1967 Bill Moody* 2012 - 13 No one Elected 1969 - 70 Roy Page* 2013 - 14 Phil Alexander 1970 - 71 Stan Scarman* 2014 - 15 Robert Laidlaw 1971 - 72 Bob Finn* 2014 - 15 Barry O’Brien 1972 - 73 Max Stone* 2015 - 16 Lorraine Dunn 1973 - 74 Max Galloway* 2015 - 16 Warwick Marks 1974 - 75 Kingsley Wellington 1975 - 76 Jim Garrick* * Deceased 1976 - 77 Lou Bressler* 1978 - 79 Arthur Rathbone* 1979 - 80 Don Klaebe* 1980 - 81 Gordon Ross* 1981 - 82 Brian Brooks* 1982 - 83 Tom Rice* 1983 - 84 Claude Pearce* 1984 - 85 Harry Hunt* 1985 - 86 Warren Charles 1986 - 87 Colin Rowe* 1987 - 88 Ms Pat Beatty* 1988 - 89 Ray Thorne* 1989 - 90 Ken Wesslink 1990 - 91 Dave Roberts 1991 - 92 Don Rice* 1992 - 93 Ron Wright 1992 - 93 Max Puckett* 1993 - 94 Ron Morgan*
5 South Australian Baseball League Inc. CAPPS Medal Winners 1936 - 2016
YEAR WINNER CLUB
1936 Charlie Puckett* Prospect 1983 - 84 Greg Elkson Glenelg 1937 Clem Scott* Goodwood 1984 - 85 Jeff Fiechtner Kensington 1938 Geff Noblet * Glenelg 1985 - 86 Jeff Fiechtner Kensington 1939 Phil Brideoake* West Torrens 1986 - 87 Tony Harris Woodville 1940 Fred Catt* East Torrens 1987 - 88 Greg Elkson Goodwood 1941 Garth Burton* Kensington 1987 - 88 Brian Farley Central Districts 1988 - 89 Brian Farley Central Districts 1942 - 1945 (War Years) 1988 - 89 Barry Lunnon Sturt 1989 - 90 Greg Elkson Goodwood 1946 Jim Puckett* Prospect 1990 - 91 Brian Cakebread Port Adelaide 1947 Phil Brideoake* West Torrens 1991 - 92 Barry Lunnon Sturt 1948 Phil Brideoake* West Torrens 1992 - 93 Barry Lunnon Sturt 1949 Ian Leahy* Prospect 1993 - 94 Phil Burgess West Torrens 1950 Barry Wiles* Adelaide 1994 - 95 Russell Dart Henley & Grange 1951 Bill Fuller University 1995 - 96 Ian Reval Glenelg 1952 Doug Othams University 1996 - 97 Mark Born Port Adelaide 1953 Colin Watts Glenelg 1997 - 98 Scott Marshall Port Adelaide 1954 Des Vaughton* West Torrens 1998 - 99 Scott Marshall Port Adelaide 1955 Phil Brideoake* Glenelg 1999 - 00 Craig Watts Sturt 1956 Doug Othams University 2000 - 01 John Challinor Goodwood 1957 Peter Box* Goodwood 2001 - 02 Ryan Simunsen Adelaide 1958 Peter Box* Goodwood 2002 - 03 Darren Fidge Goodwood 1959 Jim Tamlin University 2003 - 04 Darren Fidge Goodwood 1960 Jim Cocks* Sturt 2004 - 05 John Challinor Goodwood 1961 Don Rice* Glenelg 2005 - 06 Darren Fidge Goodwood 1962 Don Rice* Glenelg 2006 - 07 Andrew Scott West Torrens 1963 Don Rice* Glenelg 2007 - 08 Michael Ewart Kensington 1964 Ian Glover Kensington 2008 - 09 Tyler Levin East Torrens 1965 Neil Davey Port Adelaide 2009 - 10 Daniel Wilson Glenelg 1966 Kevin Greatrex Port Adelaide 2010 - 11 Todd Langman Port Adelaide 1967 Don Rice* Glenelg 2011 - 12 Nick Talbot Kensington 1968 Don Rice* Glenelg 2012 - 13 Nick Talbot Kensington 1968 David Hutton Sturt 2013 - 14 Andrew Davis Port Adelaide 1968 - 69 Ron Chandler Adelaide 2014 - 15 Nick Talbot Kensington 1969 - 70 David McLoud Goodwood 2015 - 16 Wes Roemer Glenelg 1970 - 71 Kevin Greatrex Port Adelaide 1971 - 72 David Mundy Port Adelaide * Deceased 1972 - 73 Kevin Greatrex Port Adelaide 1973 - 74 Neil Page Goodwood 1973 - 74 Les Behrendt Woodville 1974 - 75 Colin Alexander Glenelg 1975 - 76 Kevin Greatrex Port Adelaide 1976 - 77 Don Masters Northern Districts 1977 - 78 Mark Peters Woodville 1978 - 79 Greg Elkson Glenelg 1979 - 80 John Galloway Woodville 1980 - 81 Gary Challen* Henley & Grange 1981 - 82 Phil Alexander Glenelg 1982 - 83 Greg Elkson Glenelg
6 South Australian Baseball League Inc. BASEBALL SA PRESIDENT
2015/16 certainly has been very much a hands on approach to not only deliver and provide a secure and stable service level to our members but to introduce a range of programs that engages our new facility which positively promotes our game.
Baseball SA continues to provide many new and exciting opportunities for our members whether its an introduction to the game via T-Ball and Little League or player development via Charter ball, or a strong competitive senior baseball schedule, the game remains an attractive and interactive sport.
The visual progression we have made in many areas of the business will become evident as the Board is focused on working even harder than ever to keep delivering the service levels expected in all areas of the game. Our engagement with key stakeholders including Baseball Australia, Australian Baseball League, Softball SA, Diamond Sports and West Beach Trust as well as the State Government and commercial partners will provide further benefits in the months and years to come. More opportunities, greater visibility and a sense of belonging are all key short-term objectives we are pushing for.
The 7 strategic focus areas have assisted us in developing grassroots, implementing programs and providing more opportunities for player development. As we continue to strive for increase participation in a competitive landscape I am excited about the introduction of new charter teams which increases the opportunities for athletes to complete at an elite level, and at their very best represent our Country.
After a long an arduous journey spaning decades, it is pleasing to finally acknowledge that Baseball in SA has a home. There is no doubt the commitment, vision and dedication from all concerned with the project has resulted in a fantastic venue for all members to enjoy. On Friday 2nd Oct 2015 the Baseball community gathered for the official opening, supported by a number of influencing people that proudly helped shape the game in this State. The introduction of the Mark Hutton grandstand assumes pride of presences and is flanked proudly by the Luke Prokopec and the Andrew Scott dugouts, all contained within the appropriately named Bennett Field. Shayne was largely responsible for the grant funding approval and played a pivotal role in the implementation of the project phase.
The Baseball SA home has meant a capital investment required from members reserves and this is highlighted in the audited report showing an end of fiscal year operating loss. The Board sought to invest in 2 key areas of the facility (1) on-field capital works, with dugouts and backstop and (2) off-field with Diamond Sports start-up capital.
We relocated our office to the new home of Baseball which will allow increased efficiencies and improve the output required. We have been blessed by a dedicated group of umpires who relentlessly officiate in a professional manner to ensure the games integrity is protected and all in conditions. Without doubt the scorer fraternity is one that is without many acknowledgment, I would, like to thank each and every one for your commitment.
On behalf the Board I would like to offer condolences to those love ones who are no longer with us and have been touched at the baseball community how it manages to rally around those that have been effected.
I would like to especially thank Renae as she pursues other opportunities, the Board wish her well and again thank her for her professionalism, financial modelling that continues to provided robust structure for our organisation.
Congratulations to all premiers, award winners, milestone achievements and a special acknowledgement of Philip Brideoake for his induction into Baseball Australia Hall of Fame.
Finally, I would like to thank our dedicated staff headed by our CEO, Nathan Davison who have all worked hard to deliver a level of service to our members that is in line with our expectations. Thank you to my Board, who have been relentless and supportive in our drive to take our game forward on every level.
MARK SNELGROVE President
7 South Australian Baseball League Inc. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Baseball in South Australia continued its trend of improving at every level and some of the highlights include the following:
- Our Under 16 team taking out the National Championship for the first time in nearly four decades - The first full year of the Women’s Baseball League, a jointly funded initiative with the Office for Recreation and Sport - The first full season of our very own purpose built baseball facility in Bennett Field at West Beach - Successfully hosting the Australian Junior League Championships and being awarded this for a further three year term. - A successful Australian Masters Games competition coincident with the season opener for our Division 1 on Oct 2nd. - The Adelaide Bite overcoming a 1-9 start to the season to make the Championship Series falling short to a red hot Brisbane outfit. - More total representatives on National teams as players, coaches, executive officers and physio’s from the U12 to senior level than in our history. - A full year of stable staffing in the “integrated, all of baseball” office. - A successful year of grants applications concluding in the soon to be awarded facilities grant from the Office for Recreation and Sport to continue to upgrade the Diamond Sports facility for both tenant sports.
A big thank you to our Board of Directors, in particular our President Mark Snelgrove for his tireless time and effort over the entire twelve month period.
It has been exciting to welcome Annie Fidge and Karen Phillips in their respective portfolios, and a fond farewell to Kevin Shepardson for his time and effort during his tenure.
Thank you must also go to our united workforce who work tirelessly with passion and drive in the attempt to best serve our members.
This shout out not only goes to those employed within baseball but to the many many volunteers we are lucky enough to be able to work with , who put in countless hours and effort all for the love of the game. Without these contributions baseball would not survive at any level, so again a very big personal thank you to all of our invaluable volunteers.
Other thank you’s got out to our key corporate partners, in particular the Office for Recreation and Sport and SA Power Networks, now the longest standing naming rights sponsor in baseball in Australia for their ongoing support in partnering with the Adelaide Bite.
8 South Australian Baseball League Inc. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Baseball SA and Softball SA, in conjunction with Diamond Sports and their Board continue to work together to maximize the synergies that are present in being housed at the same facility. The imminent decision regarding inclusion in the Olympics will be a further fillip for both sports to be spurred on by.
Baseball SA continues to make all attempts at an ever inclusive environment and looks forward to further interactions with our regional affiliated bodies, our scorers, and our friends in the umpiring fraternity.
The landscape for baseball in Australia continues to evolve with discussions continuing as this report is writ- ten on new improved ways to work on the core initiatives of our strategic values, which include:
- ongoing participation and development of our players, coaches and officials - facilities development - the ABL
In closing I would like to thank the entire baseball community for its interest in the game we all love, and implore this interest level increases.
Yours in Baseball
NATHAN DAVISON Chief Executive Officer
2015/16 Adelaide Bite Awards:
The Bob Finn Memorial Award MVP - Kyle Petty
Bite Pitching Award - Steven Chambers
Bite Hitting Award - Marc Wik
9 South Australian Baseball League Inc. ADELAIDE BITE 2015/2016 ROSTER
COACHING STAFF: CATCHERS:
Stephen Mintz (USA) - Manager Beau Bishop (NZ) Andrew Scott Landon Hernandez (USA) Paul Green Connar O’Gorman Darren Fidge Davis Page (USA) Chris Adamson Mark Chandler Jeff Kevan INFIELD:
Jordan Cowan (USA) PITCHERS: Travis Demeritte (USA) Mitchell Lightbody Devon Barker (USA) Corey Lyon Jake Cairns Kyle Petty (USA) Steven Chambers Stefan Welch Kevin Comer (USA) Marc Wik (USA) Daniel Desimone (USA) Chris Adamson Chris Dula (USA) Mason Pickard Dallas Gallant (USA) Christopher Horne Takuro Ito (Japan) OUTFIELD: Kody Kerski (USA) Hei Chun Lee (South Korea) Tom Brice Wilson Lee Thomas Fiebig Daniel Nilsson Karl Hoschke Matthew Swilley (USA) Ben Lodge Nick Talbot Gary Owens (USA) Travis Tingle (USA) Scott Quinlan (USA) Josh Tols Angus Roeger Elroy Urbina (USA) John Schultz (USA) Loek Van Mil (Netherlands) Kyal Williams Matthew Williams
10 South Australian Baseball League Inc. FINANCE DIRECTOR
Year ended 30 April 2016
Our net Loss of $120,654 for the year ending 30 April 2016 against a break even budget is reflective of the level of expenditure that was unbudgeted in relation to a number of expenses associated with Baseball SA’s involvement with the Diamond Sports Facility. While unbudgeted from an a Profit and Loss Statement, additional expenditure was identified at the outset of the establishment of the Diamond Sports agreement and provisioned through cash at bank from prior years.
This extraordinary expenditure of over $80,000 included the cost of $20,000 for upgrading the dug outs on Diamond 1, and Baseball’s usage of both the administrative facilities, diamonds and Indoor training facilities.
Strategies are being developed on the ongoing future recovery of additional expenses in relation to the use of the new facilities, including an increased focus on commercial income activities and levies to external users through the Diamond Sports Facilities.
INCOME Our total income of $859,800 was in line with budget, slightly higher than prior years due to additional grants in relation to the new Women’s Baseball league and levies from additional number of youth teams compared to 2015. Both of these lines of additional incomes are directly offset with related expenditure for each of these programs.
EXPENDITURE Our total expenditure of $980,440 was above budget by around $80,000 due to expenses incurred in relation to the new Diamond Sports Agreement and Facilities. This includes $40,000 on Diamond Sports Expenses from the prior year where only expensed $6,880 and an additional $20,000 being an arms-length loan to Diamond Sports SA Inc. As noted above, additional expenditure was incurred compared to 2015 for Youth expenses and the Women’s League, which had additional grant and levy income to offset the additional expenditure in 2016.
BALANCE SHEET Our Trade Debtors as at 30 April 2016 was $126,301, up on prior years due to timing of Baseball SA reporting coinciding with invoicing to additional Little League, Junior League and Senior League teams as well as outstanding transactions via the ABL seat advisor booking system.
Our cash position on 30 April 2016 is $377, 190 down slightly from the prior financial year, due to costs incurred in relation to Diamond Sports. The increase in Trade Creditors is a direct reflection of invoices received and not yet paid to Diamond Sports at year end .
ANNETTE FIDGE Finance Director
11 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 12 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 13 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 14 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 15 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 16 South Australian Baseball League Inc. DIAMOND SPORTS SA INC.
Diamond Sports SA Incorporated is the operating and maintenance body of the West Beach complex. Diamond Sports SA proudly partners Softball and Baseball in a facility where both sports can coexist. The venue consists of 1 purpose built fully skinned Softball diamond, 1 purpose built Baseball diamond and 1 multi-purpose fully skinned diamond. The facility also boasts a brand new 900sqm indoor training facility with new athlete change rooms and shared offices. The venue will provide athletes from both Baseball and Softball new pathways into elite training with the best coaches in the state.
Over the last twelve months Diamond Sports SA has played host to several major events in both sports. The venue opened with the 15th Australian Masters Games in October 2015 before playing host to the first international tournament under Diamond Sports SA in the Pacific School Games in November 2015. January 2016 brought the Softball Men’s National Championship and the John Reid Shield back to Adelaide for the first time since 2001. April and May 2016 saw fantastic baseball in the South Australia State Little League Championship and the National Junior Championship. Throughout all of these events the local competitions in Baseball SA’s and Softball SA’s Adelaide Competition provided a consistent use of the venue for the best players in both sports within the state.
Diamond Sports SA will continue to find the resources to improve the venue to make it the best in Australia. Some future plans include upgrades to the fencing on Softball Diamond 1, a dedicated BBQ area to be used by both sports, new disability pathways and access to the venue, painting around the venue, upgraded café and bar areas, additional equipment and seating throughout the venue. Diamond Sports SA will fund these upgrades through a combination of local, state and federal grants as well as revenue generated by events held at the venue.
The first year of operation under the partnership between Diamond Sports SA, Baseball SA and Softball SA has proven to be a success and is just the start of great things to come at West Beach. With the support of our stakeholders, this relationship as well as the venue will continue to grow and thrive while at the same time providing outstanding opportunities for athletes of all ages to improve their skills and better represent South Australia.
BRIAN PIERCE Facilities Manager
17 South Australian Baseball League Inc. AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
Baseball South Australia, in conjunction with Baseball Australia, Diamond Sports SA and Adelaide Shores, hosted the 2016 Australia Junior League Championship at West Beach, Adelaide and Glenelg Baseball Club from May 22 – 26, 2016.
In its second year of operation, this event saw 16 teams, containing over 320 Players, Team and Championship Officials; from across the country vie for the right to be crowned Australian Junior League Champions. To add to the excitement of this event, earlier in 2016 Australia was for the first time granted automatic entry to the 2016 Junior League World Series in Taylor, Michigan.
The Championship was scheduled for 5 days of competition with 48 games to be played across the 2 Adelaide venues. On the second last day of competition the championship was halted by inclement weather. It was however due to the dedication of Baseball South Australia, their wonderful volunteers and the Glenelg Baseball Club for their tireless work to prepare the fields, the Championship was miraculously able to resume on the last day, which saw Cronulla (NSW) emerge as the eventual winners of the 2016 Australian Junior League Championship.
Baseball Australia is excited about the future of this event in Adelaide and utilising the great facilities Diamond Sports SA, the home of Baseball South Australia, has available.
Mathew Sundstrom Baseball Australia Head of Little League and National Championships.
18 South Australian Baseball League Inc. PLAYER PATHWAY & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
The 2015/16 season proved another season of growth and development, with a number of changes designed to provide opportunity to continue playing baseball.
The Charter pathway continues to grow, with opportunities in Little League, Junior League and Senior League for players to be selected for Charter Teams. Charter baseball is a rapidly expanding area, with growth in Australia amongst the best in the world.
Teeball Club development programs for entry level players are the key to recruitment in our sport. The program, regardless of format from club to club, has seen participant numbers increase by 10% from the 2014/15 season. The hard work of all clubs at this level is to be commended and vital to the sustainability of our sport
Under 11 The second year of the Under 11 competition resulted in a change in several rules to encourage more active participation in games. Slightly shorter pitching distances reduced the number of walks, and a focus on catcher and pitcher development in this age group will pay dividends in higher grades.
Little League Little League (U13) continues to be an area of growth, with 4 Charters and 4 Development Teams participating in the Little League State Championship weekend. The Riverland entered into the Development pool for the first time, with opportunities for other country areas to join in future years.
The ability to participate in tournament baseball for over 100 players and 25 coaches is vital to player and coach development, as well as providing a fun atmosphere for players and spectators.
The Adelaide Seahawks became Little League State Champions for the first time, after only 2 years of existence. Both the Adelaide Seahawks and Adelaide Rays advanced to Nationals in Lismore and performed well in a very competitive tournament, with the Rays placing 4th, and the Seahawks 14th.
Junior League The flow on effect from an increase in Little League participation is expected in Junior League in the next few seasons.
The Junior League State Championships were held in January, with the Adelaide Waves defeating the Adelaide Pirates and Mount Gambier to become Junior League State Champions.
19 South Australian Baseball League Inc. PLAYER PATHWAY & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Both Adelaide Pirates and Adelaide Waves advanced to Nationals in Adelaide, both finishing outside the top 8.
Baseball SA hosted the 2016 Australian Junior League Championships, welcoming 16 teams from around the country. It also marked the first time that the winner received direct entry into the Junior League World Series in Taylor, Michigan.
Due to the number of games the first 2 days of the Championship was split over Glenelg Baseball Club and Diamond Sports at West Beach.
With the amount of rainfall over the week, all games scheduled for Day 4 were cancelled, with only the semi-finals and final played on Day 5. A big thank you to Glenelg Baseball Club for allowing the final day to be moved back to Glenelg, as the ground had withstood the overnight rain.
Visiting teams were impressed with the facilities at West Beach, especially the indoor facility. The ability to house all teams at Adelaide Shores was certainly appreciated by teams, cutting down travel time that often accompanies such tournaments.
Senior League The Charter pathway took another step this season, introducing Senior League (U17) Charters for the first time. The inaugural Senior League State Championships were held April 2 - 3, with two Charters (Adelaide Titans and Adelaide Armada) fighting for the title of State Champion. Adelaide Titans became Senior League State Champions, and both Charters headed to Nationals in Lismore. With the level of play unknown due to the first year of the competition, the Titans finished 4th while the Armada were beaten in quarter finals.
Development The focus moving forward is implementing programs that feed into entry level programs at clubs, as well as improving conversion rate of teeballers into club baseball. Retaining players that clubs have worked hard in recruiting and developing, and moving them through grades to senior baseball is an area that can be improved upon.
With a clear pathway in place, a more active presence in country regions will allow involvement in the Charter pathway. Mount Gambier are currently represented at Little League and Junior League level, as well as Riverland entering Little League Development.
Matthew Williams Player Pathway and Development Manager
20 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SCHOOLBOYS “The Secondary School Baseball Tournament.” has an important place on the baseball calendar. Traditionally the tournament is held yearly in the month of May.
The selection process is quite different from the one used in selecting state teams for other national tournaments. This is a school’s program overseen by DECS and has some strict criteria that must be followed. Things like behaviour while at school being considered and ensuring all members are up to date with assignments to name two. During the tournament the players must be given study time if requested. The tournament always has an education day and this year it was a tour of the Fremantle jail.
The tryout dates are formally gazetted and distributed to all Sport’s Coordinators in the schools who then disseminate the information to students. Coaches are then given two weeks of tryouts to select the team. The selection dates are as follows;
1. Friday - pitchers and catchers get to tryout 2. The next day (Saturday) - the position players attend and tryout 3. The following Saturday allows the coaches to review the player attributes prior to the announcement of the squad that will compete.
This year tryouts were also held in Mount Gambier to alleviate the need for parents to rush to Adelaide putting them at risk. I hope that this is continued in the future as four players who tried out in Mount Gambier made the final selection.
The process is not ideal but it is a program that allows players who may not have played state teams to gain some exposure. South Australia is the only team that has a participation component to contend with.
The 2016 Schoolboy’s tournament was held in Perth at the Perth Heat grounds. Because of last minute changes the site of the second ground was changed and this affected all teams because it included pitching on a fibre glass mound. In the round robin format South Australia defeated Queensland and ACT. The points were carried into the second round where we had to defeat ACT and Queensland.
The final day’s play was played in some terrible conditions with rain putting the main field out of play. South Australia beat ACT in the first part of a double header. By defeating Queensland, we would go into the medal round. We were leading Queensland 6-4 in the top of the sixth innings when rain made it dangerous to pitch on the fibre glass mound. The score reverted back to 4 – 4 which meant that we played ACT in the lower bracket.
The behaviour of all players was exemplary and the young men are a credit to their families. I take this opportunity to wish them well in their baseball future.
21 South Australian Baseball League Inc. JUNIOR AWARDS
U16 Greatrex Sports Award: Brodie Arriola
U18 Greatrex Sports Award: Brodie MacBeth
U16 State Team Most Valuable Player: Harrison Knuckey
U18 State Team Most Valuable Player: Jordan McArdle
Don Klaebe Memorial Award - Youth State Team Most Consistent: Harrison Knuckey
Brewers Masters Inc. SA’s Future Player Award: Brodie Arriola
Harvey/Kobayashi Coaching Award: Tyrone Hambly
Max Puckett Award, Bite Academy Athlete Of The Year: Jordan McArdle
Andrew Bell Junior Umpire Award: Lachlan Rees
Junior Club Of The Year: Southern Districts Baseball Club
Youth MVP Medals
U11 South - Georgia Davis (Glenelg)
U11 North - Aiden Lucas (Northern Districts)
U13 Div 2 - Matt Lokan (Goodwood)
U13 Div 1 - Robbie Brennan (Sturt)
U15 Div 2 - Josh Wilson (East Torrens) & Jake Bonner (East Torrens)
U15 Div 1 - Bailey Short (Southern Districts)
U17 - Curtis Mead (West Torrens)
22 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SENIOR AWARDS
WOMEN’S BASEBALL LEAGUE
Yellow Team Ashleigh George Blue Team Elizabeth Ward Red Team Katy Laidlaw Green Team Bianca Smith
SA Bite Awards
State U25 Most Improved Nathan Van Der Linden State U25 MVP Kyal Williams
The Ohlstrom Shield (Senior Club of the Year) Woodville Baseball Club
Umpiring Awards
Most Improved Umpire Danny Symons Paul Begg Award for Most Outstanding Umpire Ian Reval
MVP Awards
Division 7 – BUASA & SABSA Medal Issei Takamura (Flinders) Division 6 – John Tyson Medal Scott Miller (Golden Grove Central Districts) Division 5 – Graham Fisher Medal Brenton Short (Southern Districts) Dominic Hodges (Henley & Grange) Division 4 – Max Galloway Medal Ben Zoontjens (West Torrens) Division 3 – George Chapman Medal Brandon Diplock (Golden Grove Central Districts) Division 2 – Ron Sharpe Medal Nathan Nicholson (Woodville) U19 South – Don Rice League Damon Arnold (Sturt) U19 North – Don Rice League Matt Howell (Northern Districts) Nick George (Northern Districts) Nick Platten (Kensington)
Volunteer of the Year Paul Sowter (East Torrens)
23 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SENIOR AWARDS Division 1 Awards
Golden Glove Outfielder of the Year Byron Turner (Southern Districts) Golden Glove Infielder of the Year Jeremy Cresswell (Goodwood) Batting Average Award Riley Moore (Port Adelaide) Runs Batted In Award Riley Moore (Port Adelaide) Earned Run Average Award Jackson Lodge (Woodville) Rookie of the Year Award Jack O’Loughlin (Port Adelaide)
PLAYER MILESTONES
50 Games Ross Brunton – East Torrens Troy Chandler – East Torrens Jarred Hardman – East Torrens 100 Games Matt Attard – East Torrens Steve Braggs – East Torrens James Hollands – East Torrens Scott Menhennett – East Torrens Craig Powell – East Torrens Tony Rogers – East Torrens 150 Games Adam Curtis – East Torrens 200 Games Calvin Chipperfield – East Torrens Jay Sanderson – East Torrens 250 Games Ben Capping – East Torrens 300 Games Chris Doyle – Woodville Troy Nicholson – Woodville Rhys Owen – Woodville Troy Weinert – Woodville Mike Fidge – Goodwood 400 Games Ben Lodge – Woodville Adam Mathews – East Torrens 500 Games Peter Haynes – East Torrens Darren Robinson – East Torrens Craig Doyle – Goodwood Darren Fidge – Goodwood (Div 1) 550 Games Travis Underhill – East Torrens 650 Games John Lamb – East Torrens 700 Games Matt Dunn – Goodwood 800 Games James Bushell – Goodwood TEAM OF THE YEAR
Left Field Gary Owens (Woodville) Centre Field Evan LeBlanc (Glenelg) Right Field Brendan Pett (Goodwood) First Base Craig Handy (Glenelg) Second Base Jared Kempf (West Torrens) Third Base Vinnie Fayard (Woodville) Shortstop Jeremy Cresswell (Goodwood) Catcher Riley Moore (Port Adelaide) Starting Pitcher Dushan Ruzic (Port Adelaide) Relief Pitcher Hayden McGearey (Glenelg) Closing Pitcher Travis Tingle (Adelaide) Designated Hitter Tyler Krobetzky (Golden Grove Central Districts) Head Coach Russell Hart (Henley & Grange) Plate Umpire Ian Reval Base Umpire Paul Haynes Scorers Carol Burns & Enza Henty
25 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 2015/16 CAPPS MEDALIST
WES ROEMER - GLENELG BASEBALL CLUB
26 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 2016 BASEBALL AUSTRALIA HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE
PHIL BRIDEOAKE
In 2016, South Australian Baseball Legend Phil Brideoake was inducted into the the Baseball Australia Hall of Fame.
Mr. Brideoake was a player for the West Torrens Baseball Club in the South Australian Baseball League (SABL). He had a long baseball career as both a player and coach from 1930 – 1956.
He is one of the most decorated Australian baseball players of all time. He played in 270 A-Grade games for West Torrens after making his debut with the top side in 1934. Mr. Brideoake was also the playing coach from 1938-1941 and again from 1946-1951. Unfortunately, his career was interrupted by World War 2 in the early 1940s.
His leadership and playing ability was evident. He won five premierships as playing coach for West Torrens in a six-year window, racking up titles in 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950 and 1951.
During his career with West Torrens, Mr. Brideoake won the Capps Medal for the best and fairest player in the SABL on three occasions – in 1939, 1947 and 1948. In 1955 he transferred to Glenelg Baseball Club and won the Capps Medal for a fourth time in 1956.
He also played in the first ever Claxton Shield competition for South Australia. Overall, he made seven appearances on the South Australian team (1937-1939 and 1946-1949). Had the competition not been suspended during World War 2, Mr. Brideoake would have likely been apart of the state team too.
From 1946-1949, Phil played for Team Australia.
27 South Australian Baseball League Inc. HERITAGE COMMITTEE
Honouring the achievements of past champions is possibly the most rewarding aspect of our work. This year we have identified candidates for Life Membership of Baseball SA and Baseball Australia and Hall of Fame within Baseball Australia. We have a proud record of success both on the diamond and in administration and we will continue to research our records to identify future inductees.
Regarding the Hall of Fame Induction of Phil Brideoake; we express our thanks to Mr. Brett Pickett, CEO of Baseball Australia, for allowing us to present the award to the Brideoake Family at the Capps Medal dinner and acknowledge his presence at the dinner and making the induction. A special moment for the Brideoake Family.
Other activities include the following;
Participation in Sport SA’s permanent display of Sporting Greats from SA. This display is on north side of North Tce. just down from the railway station. Well worth a visit!
Planning for the celebration of the 80th year of the Capps Medal includes the production of a book in which it is hoped to include the playing record of each winner in their year(s). Photos will be difficult to find and we will be calling for all clubs to provide as much information that they may have.
History Week in South Australia has become a popular event and we have flagged our intention to participate in 2017. This is a free event to visit various cultural, sporting and places of interest over a period of 1 month. It’s an opportunity for us to put our history on display.
We have expanded our database to include records of Night Baseball played at Norwood Oval from inception in 1952/53 to 1967/68. This series was the first sport in Australia to have a team sport played under lights for a regular season. The Night Baseball Committee (NBL) was an affiliated body of the SA Baseball League (SABL). Believe it or not but our historians have managed to track down the result of EVERY game played in those years. This also includes interstate series play over Christmas /New Year period. We have been working hard to trace all the results of all the Country Championships Series and have made good progress.
Over the years we have collected a large range of baseball books which will be sorted and made available for hire to those people who are interested. It will take time to organise but it will happen.
The work and enthusiasm of this committee continues to tackle new projects as well as maintaining the ongoing events. It is a pleasure to be part of such a group who have achieved so much and continue to search for new horizons.
My thanks and admiration to Ron Chandler, Gordon Penhall, Robert Laidlaw, Phil Burgess and Doug White for preserving our history.
Alan Waldron, AM Chair - Baseball SA Heritage Committee
28 South Australian Baseball League Inc. STATE DIRECTOR OF COACHING
It has been a busy first year for me as State Director of Coaching. The addition of the new facilities at West Beach has opened up many opportunities for new development programs year round as well as improvements on existing ones.
I would like to thank my coaching staff, volunteers, participants and families for their support in the running of these programs.
State Teams The 2015/16 season has proved to bring strong competition for our state teams at national competitions with our U16, U18 and U25s fighting hard at their respective tournaments.
Congratulations must go to the coaching staff of our U16 state team, being Tyrone Hambly, Tony Probert and Lachlan Eldridge who worked tirelessly preparing our state squad for their national title.
Congratulations also to award winners Jordan McArdle (U18 Silver Slugger award) and Kyal Williams (U25 MVP). These awards could not have gone to more deserving players – well done boys!
I want to thank all our state coaches; Tyrone Hambly, Damien Norsworthy and Peter Kitchingman and their coaching staff for their hard work and giving their time to prepare each team for national competition.
Bite Academy With the support of my skilled coaching staff, we have been able to continue the running of the Little League, Youth and Elite Academies. Each program is designed to provide in-depth training in an enjoyable yet challenging environment for each individual.
We encourage all club coaches to participate in the academy programs to work toward their coaching accreditation. Coaches are provided with new tips and drills as well as regular feedback to assist in their coaching development.
Over the past 12 months, we have seen 50 players progress through the Little League and Youth programs was pleased to see a vast improvement in players through various data collection and testing.
For the 2016 Elite Academy we have been able to expand the program to include strength and conditioning, sports nutrition, yoga and flexibility.
Our goal for the 2016 academy is to increase numbers in both age groups, replicate the improvements we made last year and make other improvements in new areas we test.
MLBAAP The Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program is an amateur academy designed to develop elite players on home soil and provide a pathway for players to potential professional and international baseball.
This year I was fortunate to receive an invitation to join the academy coaching staff in the Gold Coast along with Tyrone Hambly and Mark Hutton.
My time spent at the academy not only introduced me to an exciting new throwing program which looks promising to increase arm velocities and strengthening while incorporating arm care and recovery but also highlighted the importance of our academy programs in developing elite players.
29 South Australian Baseball League Inc. STATE DIRECTOR OF COACHING
Women’s Baseball League Baseball SA has been proud to reintroduce the South Australian Women’s Baseball League over the 2015/16 season with 70 women registering in our inaugural season. Thanks to continued funding from the ORS, the WBL will continue in the 2016/17 and will be looking to increase participation around the league as well as prepare to send a team from SA to the national tournament.
International Academy In 2016/17, Baseball SA has hopes to attract international colleges, clubs, teams and academies to utilise our facilities at Diamond Sports SA, West Beach. This would provide opportunities to collaborate with international teams and improve our programs.
We also have plans to implement potential annual US tours for teams to gain experience and exposure internationally.
College recruitment As part of Baseball SA’s player pathway, we would like to open up international opportunities for elite players to continue their baseball careers at the highest level possible. This entails working with players to create a recruiting profile to send to colleges in the United States.
Along with players already enrolled in various colleges, we have had three players verbally commit to Monterey Peninsula College (California), Pitt Community College (North Carolina) and John Wood Community College (Illinois).
Camps and Clinics This year Baseball SA has provided numerous camps, clinics and training and development programs to schools and the South Australian baseball community, ranging from broad spectrum camps to weekly specific skills sessions. It has been a privilege to be part of the introduction to baseball for many students through the Northern T-Ball Program and school clinics as well as being part of the continual development in youth baseball. The passion new players are showing for the sport is inspiring.
Finally, congratulations to the following high performing players who have been selected to represent SA/Australia in the below competitions and programs; HonkBal: MLBAAP: Cal Ripken World Series: Dushan Ruzic Ky Hampton Bradlee Marsh Josh Tols Mason Clavell Robbie Brennan Wilson Lee Jack O’Loughlin Riley Yeatman Matt Williams Declan Steel Andrew Scott (coach) Steve Chambers Jordan McArdle Mitch Denning Landon Hernandez (coach) National Women’s Baseball: Tyrone Hambly (coach) Matt Williams MLB Spring Training: Mark Hutton (coach) Jordan McArdle Jack O’Loughlin National U15 Tryout: Mason Pickard Tyson McKee Brodie Arriola Will Kortekaas Joe Gluyas LANDON HERNANDEZ State Director of Coaching 30 South Australian Baseball League Inc. PLAYER & COACH DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
With the new facilitates at West Beach, it has been a good opportunity for ALL of our players to train at the one venue. From Little League teams, through to Senior League, and also Women’s Baseball teams, all state teams also use Diamond Sports. This venue does improve our overall development of Baseball SA players.
BITE ELITE ACADEMY: This group of players were invited out to the academy, recommended by state coaches and identified by the academy coaches. At the first training, all field testing was carried out and again at the completion of the academy with very positive improvements in all areas.
BITE BASEBALL ACADEMY: Again run under two groups of athletes. Bite Little League group 10yrs through to 13 yrs Bite Youth group 13 yrs through to 18 years With this we also extended an invitation and encouraged all clubs and club coaches to participate. 50 Players attended this academy and with a survey report completed has given good feedback for planning future academies & clinics.
NATIONAL LEVEL: Under 25’s again played in Cairns, Qld, in September 2015. Lead by Peter Kitchingman as Head Coach. Again timing of this event proved tough. Unfortunately the team finished 4th. Congratulations to Kyal Williams for being M.V.P. for this tournament. Under 18 & 16’s playing squads again played in the Goodwill Series at Woodville Baseball Club in December. This was the twentieth year Bob Williams USA Touring Party has visited Adelaide. Again, thank you Bob, for your efforts to help Baseball SA prepare our teams for the National Youth Championships. Under 16’s: National Youth Championships played in Blacktown in Sydney was an outstanding effort by Tyrone Hambly, Tony Probert & Lachlan Eldridge and all the players. To WIN the U16’s National Youth Championships for the first time in some 37 years, with a 7-4 Win over Victoria Blue. This was a credit to everyone for their hard work & committment. Fantastic result for the coaches & players for Baseball in SA. Under 18’s: National Youth Championships also in Sydney lead by Damien Norsworthy as Head Coach. Unfortunately a 7th place wasn’t the desired result with this group of players. Missing out with some very close game results not going their way. To all players, coaches & executive officers, scorers & umpires, who were involved the Bite Academy & state teams, thank you for the support & commitment to these programs.
31 South Australian Baseball League Inc. PLAYER & COACH DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
WOMENS BASEBALL: This year Baseball SA took on a Women’s Baseball program. A special thank you to Landon Hernandez for his hard work an commitment to this program. With trainings and a six game schedule leading into a grand final at West Beach, this has proven to be rewarding result for all women. With an “All Star” game played at the end of the season finished off a positive result for building up a good Women’s Baseball League. With the opportunity for a meet & talk to Jeneane Lesko of “AAGPBL” was a highlight for all players. Thank you to the Aussie Hearts and Aussie Sparks for their involvement to help build this league.
BASEBALL SA: Baseball SA has had some success this year with Jordan McArdle, Jack O’Loughlin & Mason Pickard going to MLB spring training trip in America. Ky Hampton, Mason Clavell, Jack O’Loughlin, Jordan McArdle & Declan Steel invited to MLBAAP Academy. Also going to MLBAAP Academy in coaching roles are Landon Hernandez, Mark Hutton & Tyrone Hambly. Players going away for U15 Australia camp tryouts are Tyson McKee, Brodie Arriola, Will Kortekaas & Joe Gluyas. Players going away for Cal Ripken is Bradlee Marsh, Robbie Brennan & Riley Yeatman. Andrew Scott is Assistant Coach on this team. Matt Williams is Pitching Coach on the Australian Women’s team.
PACIFIC SCHOOL GAMES: With the Pacific School Games in Adelaide in November 2015, SA had 6 wins during the tournament. Unfortunately they missed out on Bronze going down to WA. May this year, SA School Boys finished 4th in Perth.
COACHING ACCREDATION: Baseball SA has worked to increase our number of accredited coaches. Some 100 coaches have completed the Community Coaching Certificate which is the first stage to being an accredited coach. This is ongoing and encouraging.
Thank You,
Lawrie Moore Player & Coach Development Director
“Many people may have more talent than You... but there’s no excuse for anyone working harder than you.” - Derek Jeter
32 South Australian Baseball League Inc. OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
This year our competition moved to 3 complete rounds and with some games being played at our new home of Baseball Adelaide Shores. The first game of the season was played under lights at Adelaide Shores, the replay of last year’s grand final between Kensington and Woodville. The schedule included Thursday and Friday night games at Adelaide Shores and some Don Rice league games were played on a Wednesday night.
Our final series also changed to a new format 1v6 2v5 3v4. The grand final was played at Adelaide Shores as a 3 game series - Friday and Saturday night with the 3rd game if required played on Sunday afternoon. I would like take this opportunity to congratulate Glenelg Baseball Club on winning the Division 1 Grand Final this season. To all other clubs who won their divisions premierships - congratulations.
At this time of the year the board scrutinises the previous season with the intent of improving all aspects of our great game through our season reviews. We appreciate the input we are receiving at present and are trying to accommodate all requests. We are aware that with the use of Adelaide Shore this year there were some changes to the programming that didn’t work so feedback from everyone to make our competition the best for everyone would be greatly appreciated.
To the delegates who gave up their time at the operation meetings I would like to thank you for your involvement during this transition. From now on we will see the operation meetings being combined in the quarterly president meetings. This will bring the complexity of the running of our great game to a greater audience.
In closing, I would like to thank Andrew Scott in his role as Operation Manager and the job on the programming.
Yours In Baseball,
MARK BROUGHAM Operations Director
33 South Australian Baseball League Inc. OPERATIONS MANAGER
The season opened with last year’s Grand Finalists Kensington and Woodville facing off at the newly opened Bennett Field at West Beach. South Australian baseball now has a place we can call home and work to make it the best complex in the country.
It was a year of many changes for Division 1 baseball not only 42 games were played at Bennett field under lights throughout the season but also the schedule was extended to where each team played each other an even 3 times. The Grand Final series was also played as a best of 3 under lights at Bennett Field and congratulations to the Glenelg Baseball Club on a dominating win. Unfortunately for Woodville another runner up placing but another fine season by the club. A change in the finals format meant all games had a must win approach.
Pitch counts came in this season for senior grades and was well received by clubs with only one breech recorded.
32 player ejections over the season from senior grades with a total of 40 games missed from the ejections. A number which we would like to see much lower next season.
Congratulations go to our U16 team who won the National Tournament in January. An outstanding result by Tyrone Hambly and his coaching staff and players, one which was a long time coming for baseball in this state. It also is a good reward for all the hard work done by players and coaches through the extra training programs and academies that have been run and is proof that junior baseball in SA is heading in the right direction.
This is our game in our league and we as players, officials and administrators must continue to work together moving forward to make baseball in SA the best it can be on and off the field.
Thank you must go out to Lawrie Moore for his endless work in helping get Bennett Field to the excellent condition it was in throughout its first season.
To Mark Brougham for his help and efforts this season and the club Operation delegates for their time and support in where we all want to take SA baseball in the future.
Finally, congratulations and good luck to the following athletes that will be representing Baseball SA in National Teams/ Tryouts & College.
Cal Ripken Series- Robbie Brennan, Bradlee Marsh, Riley Yeatman National U/15 tryouts- Joe Gluyas, Tyson McKee, Brodie Arriola, Will Kortekaas. MLBAAP- Jack O’Loughlin, Ky Hampton, Mason Clavell, Declan Steel, Jordan McArdle College Programs- Tom Fitzgerald, Mason Pickard, Nicholas Carfora Australian Schoolboys - Jack O’Loughlin, Jordan McArdle
ANDREW SCOTT Operations Manager
34 South Australian Baseball League Inc. YOUTH DIRECTOR
The 2015-16 season has been another year of growth and success. Upon reflection I think it will be a significant turning point in the way clubs work with each other to create better players and a better league. The catalyst for this has been the highly successful Charter competitions at all age levels and most recently in Under 17s.
The ongoing success of the State based tournament has now been enhanced with the SABL hosting the Australian Junior League Championships. Well done to all involved for the week. A shame about the weather but due to the professional way this was run the ABF has decided to award SA with the hosting rights for this for another 3 years. Great news.
The significant change this year in the Little League Charter was the addition on the Riverland in the development competition. This is a positive sign of things from this district and look forward to seeing this grow in the years to come.
Thanks to all the Little League coaches and their staff for their hard work and efforts throughout the process to bring their teams to the State playoffs and to the Nationals. Also thanks to the parents, volunteers and the players to make this a fun time for all. Many thanks to Matt Williams and the Baseball SA staff for organising all the State Championships (Little League, Junior League and Senior League) and the Junior National Championship. Many thanks also to my fellow Directors and volunteers assisting them on these weeks to ensure successful and fun filled tournaments.
The facility at West Beach has proved to be a great success at being a hub for training for all grades. This is providing great communication between coaches, administration and parents as they are all crossing paths at the home of baseball.
Our Youth Medal Night was held at the movies for another successful night of showcasing our Youth players who polled well in their divisions and for those that represented the state or charter. Our Baseball SA staff once again did a superb job of putting this together for the enjoyment of all.
Once again thanks to all the clubs who attended the Youth Delegates meetings. In the next season you will see the implementation of changes to Under 9s and Under 7s. There will the possibility of a National Charter for the Under 19s and the ongoing growth of the game at other levels. There will be more flexibility in the upcoming season for players to play up a grade which will provide more opportunities for players to improve.
Congratulations to all the players who have been selected to represent Australia at all levels.
After visiting Lismore recently and watching first hand the SA teams participate on the Australian level, I can honestly say that the next 10 years of baseball in this State looks very bright. We just need to be persistent and strive to improve every year, both on and off the field.
Once again, thanks for a great season.
TONY CATT Youth Director
35 South Australian Baseball League Inc. MARKETING DIRECTOR
It is an exciting time for baseball and everyone involved in it. Our new stadium, the growing profile of the Adelaide Bite and changes to the Australian Baseball League, and the successful introduction of the Women’s League are opening doors to new participants, new fans and new corporate partners – all of which promise long-term rewards.
The Marketing Director’s role was filled for the first time in some years almost a year ago. The period since has been one in which learning about the opportunities to market the game and its new and long-time benefits has been critical. Fortunately, the Business Development Officer, in conjunction with other staff, has been active in identifying and pursuing opportunities to promote baseball within corporate and government circles. Work will continue in coming months to capitalise on this groundwork.
Of course, the jewel in baseball’s crown is Diamond Sports – the purpose-built stadium for which baseball and softball communities have waited so long. While the potential for Baseball SA to expand its use and boost its earning capacity is still being investigated, it is certain that the facility is already supporting Baseball SA and the state’s baseballers in being able to attract national-level competitions – and in doing so, extend the profile of Baseball SA in being able to host and manage such competitions. In the months ahead, Baseball SA will continue to explore how to maximise use of the stadium and the indoor training facility to support each of the four ‘deliverables’ outlined in our Strategic Intent and, ultimately, our ‘Sustainability’ goal.
A key driver in being sustainable is, of course, participation, and Baseball SA took a signification step in extending avenues of participation through the establishment in 2015-16 of the Women’s League. The decision to start the league – with the much-appreciated support of the State Government – coincides with the rapidly increasing profile of the national women’s soccer team, the Matildas, and, after our season was completed, news of the founding of the Australian Football League’s new women’s league. Clearly there is momentum afoot, and the South Australian baseball fraternity can be proud that we took this historic step before we could be accused of following in others’ footsteps. Most importantly, funding has been awarded to stage the league for two more seasons, and by initiating planning now, we will aim to secure a stronger presence this summer.
Growth of the sport at the earliest stages is also crucial to growth, and Baseball SA is looking forward to working closely with the clubs to review how T-ball can and should be managed to attract young girls and boys and begin their lifelong affiliation with baseball.
As baseball and softball attract more attention in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics, it is essential that we are in a position to capitalise on this interest from anyone for whom our sport is a natural fit. However, to attract newcomers, and to maintain the interest of the already converted, is increasingly difficult. It relies on communication and information – and, in 2016, this means a website that can be trusted as a true, accurate and comprehensive repository of information about the game and its components. Work is underway to explore how the website can better serve this key marketing function and become the ‘one source of truth’ that will help would-be players, parents, coaches and umpires; corporate partners and government; players, administrators and all who love the game find what they need to support their involvement.
KAREN PHILLIPS Marketing Director
36 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SA SCORERS ASSOCIATION
The South Australian Baseball Scorers Association (SABSA) promotes the art of baseball scoring through encouraging, educating and representing scorers associated with SABL. We strive to ensure uniform interpretation of the Australian Baseball Rules through participation in a national accreditation program established by the Council of Australian Baseball Scorers (CABS).
SABSA continues to update our teaching strategies and learning resource material for scorers. Members are informed of rule variations and changes in accepted interpretations at our meetings, through email and via the SABSA website: www.sabsa.baseball.com.au. Nationally accredited scorers are required to maintain a log book of their scoring activities. In order for Level 3 scorers to maintain their accreditation, we require an annual revision session based upon information gathered through monitoring of current senior scoring practices and exams. This we combine with our Annual General Meeting and encourage all scorers to come along to share in the learning.
During 2015/16 SABSA conducted scoring clinics for Levels 1, 2 and IT. It has been a great to have additional IT scorers to assist with scoring for the Bite and entering Div 1 games. Thanks to the efforts of experienced scorers including Steve Eads, Lorraine Dunn, Enza Henty and Carol Burns we continue to offer clinics and training to further the number of accredited scorers in metropolitan and country SA. This will assist our local clubs in meeting the Baseball SA requirement of ensuring Division One games have a Nationally Accredited Level 2 scorer officiating. Following on from this, as mentioned before those scorers who have attained Level 3 or higher and those who officiate at Division One level are required to complete a refresher course each 12 months. In addition to the formal accreditation levels there were “Introduction to scoring” clinics held at various clubs throughout the season to assist and encourage new scorers.
One of our constant challenges remains the need to develop sufficient numbers of higher accredited scorers to fulfil increasing demands from the Baseball Australia as well as providing scorers for the national professional competition of the Australian Baseball League (ABL).
Once again there have been many scoring opportunities for SABSA members outside of their usual club responsibilities this season. During October, the Australian Masters Games were held at the new Diamond Sports facility at West Beach, where our scorers overcame some challenges with the new venue to provide their services for this competition. The Pacific School Games were held during November at Glenelg, with the opening game being played at Norwood. The majority of the games were played during the week and the scoring and IT entry for this competition was done by only a handful of scorers. The Goodwill Series held in December at the Woodville Baseball Club offered all accredited scorers an opportunity, including newly accredited scorers to gain experience in a relaxed and friendly environment.
37 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SA SCORERS ASSOCIATION
The re-introduction of the Women’s League in South Australia meant a call for scorers for this Friday night competition at West Beach. Many thanks to all those who braved the cold and windy conditions, the often confusing position changes, charades with the umpires and the unfamiliar rules, to enable the success of this 6 week series. In January this year Enza Henty represented SABSA at the National Youth Championships for U16 & U18 at Blacktown, NSW and Carol Burns was our representative at the National Women’s and Youth Women’s Championships in Canberra, ACT. South Australia was also chosen to host the Australian Junior League Championships in May and thanks goes to Lorraine Dunn for co-ordinating extra scorers for this event and for organising training for Game Changer which was used in conjunction with scorebooks at this event.
A highlight for SABSA was the inclusion of scorers with the SA Allstars Team announced at the 2015/16 CAPPS Medal presentation; congratulations to Carol Burns and Enza Henty who were selected as scorers in the Allstar team this season.
The SABSA committee and I would like to thank Kevin Shepherdson for his support of this association and wish him well in his future ventures as he resigns as Affiliates representative.
I would like to thank the SABSA committee for their work and support: Vicki Holland, Vice President, Carol Burns, Treasurer, Enza Henty, Secretary and CABS Representative and Steve Eads for his work as website manager, for managing the notebooks for our IT scorers, for putting up all the links for the Division 1 games and for developing the online scoring module on the SABSA website for which we have had some great feedback. Thank you to Lorraine Dunn for ensuring all clubs have access to scorebooks and rule books and for the wealth of knowledge you freely share. Also I would like to thank Carolyn Smith, the outgoing president for her hard work and for her support.
Thanks must go to all those scorers who give their time and effort to support our teams and promote South Australian baseball.
VICKI WEST President
South Australia Baseball Scorers Association Web Site: http://www.sabsa.baseball.com.au
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38 South Australian Baseball League Inc. UMPIRING AWARDS
Baseball SA Awards
Andrew Bell Junior Umpire of the Year Award Lachlan Rees Most Improved Umpire Danny Symons Paul Begg Umpire of the Year Award Ian Reval
Baseball SA All-Star Umpires Ian Reval and Paul Haynes
Recognition of Championships
U18 AAA National Championships (Sydney 2016) Payne Sowter U16 AA National Championships (Sydney 2016) Kym Smith Womens National Championships (Canberra 2016) Hugo von Alpen Youth Womens National Championships (Canberra 2016) Russell King Senior League National Championships (Lismore 2016) Danny Symons Hugo von Alpen Junior League National Championships (Adelaide 2016) Peter Ditrich Little League National Championships (Lismore 2016) Russell King Paul Sowter
BUASA Awards
Claude Peace Memorial Umpires Award Jim Davidson Michael Peacock Memorial Umpires Choice Award Paul Haynes
Game Milestones
100 games Sean Bourne 200 games Ian Reval Payne Sowter Craig Ottaway 400 games Paul Haynes 500 games Kym Smith 750 games Blake Halligan Peter Ditrich
Most games 2015/2016 115 games Peter Ditrich
39 South Australian Baseball League Inc. BUASA
After 10 years on the Committee, including 6 as Chairman and 2 as Treasurer, Blake Halligan stood down to take on the position of the State Director of Umpiring. These were very big shoes to fill and my thanks go to him for the work he put in during his time at the helm, not the least of which was his negotiations with the League to resolve the issue of our members’ umpire development funds.
Last season’s membership numbers remained similar to the previous season. There were a few new faces, however we lost Mark Wilson to retirement and Terry Fitzgerald to work commitments interstate. Unfortunately a couple more stopped umpiring during the year, making it even more difficult to cover games.
At the ABL level, Ian Reval and Payne Sowter appeared at Norwood for the first time, with Rev working his first plate. I believe these two are well placed to fill the gaps left by the retirements from ABL duties of Mark Wilson and Neil Poulton.
In January, Kym Smith and Payne Sowter were our two representatives at Under 16/18 Nationals in Sydney, while Hugo von Alpen and Russell King officiated at the Women’s and Youth Women’s National Championships in Canberra. In June, Hugo and Danny Symonds travelled to Lismore for Junior Championships. Congratulations to all of these guys on their achievements. In other travel news, and despite busy local schedules, we were able to send umpires to Waikerie to assist in re-establishing dormant Riverland clubs and publicise new facilities. Further, and in addition to our city finals’ schedules, we sent local umpires to Country League finals over three different weekends in Berri, Port Pirie and Mount Gambier. I believe that it is critical that we help Country Leagues, and our umpiring colleagues, at such times.
The new facility at West Beach was generally well received by our members despite a few teething problems including the absence of appropriate, and separate, Officials’ changing rooms. Diamond Sports grounds were used a great deal throughout the season, from Opening Day with a Grand Final replay in October to the Division 1 Finals’ Series under lights in March. We look forward to further improvements to the facilities in years to come.
The advent of the ABL and the increase in games at Division 1 level has stretched our resources to the limit. There have been many games with only one BUASA umpire, necessitating the use of more and more club umpires, for whom we are appreciative. There was even one Division 1 game last year where no accredited BUASA umpire was available. Yet clubs, players and spectators complain about no-one appearing for their individual game. The fact is we cannot cover everything.
Unless the ABF, the league, our clubs and BUASA find a way to increase umpire numbers, this situation will get worse, and very quickly. It begs the question of why is there a decline in numbers? Why can’t interested parties (league, clubs and BUASA) convince retiring players, even active players, to take on the job more often? As I see it, most players say they are glad to have BUASA umpires but they also say would never consider taking on the role themselves. When I decided to take up umpiring seven years ago, one senior coach suggested that I was “moving to the dark side”. I realise that this was only said in jest but unfortunately it is actually a broadly held position. We, the league and the clubs must change this attitude.
We all have to ask ourselves why someone is hesitant to become an umpire? It is quite clear from our members’ experience that it stems in significant part from the abuse that we receive from coaches, players and, increasingly, from spectators. People expect umpires to accept this abuse as if it’s part of the game but these same people wouldn’t consider taking on the role themselves. We need to stop this type of behaviour or we will continue to lose umpires and, more importantly, fail to recruit new ones. Umpires do not want to cover games where there is a continuing pattern of abusive behavior. All involved in baseball in South Australia need to make umpiring a more acceptable option for everyone, both during and following their playing careers. I know that the league is aware of the problem and is working with the State Director to implement programs to help in this area but until something is actually achieved, umpiring numbers will continue to decline. When there are none left, it will be too late to acknowledge and address the issues and to effect change.
Thanks to the other BUASA Committee members Ian Reval, Jim Davidson, John Tretola and especially Secretary Kym Smith. I wish the best of luck to my successor and to the incoming BUASA Committee.
PAUL HAYNES BUASA Chairman
40 South Australian Baseball League Inc. STATE DIRECTOR OF UMPIRING
The first item on my agenda when I took over as State Director of Umpiring was to set our pre-season training program. Overall, our training program included:
• 1-day practical training at West Beach for 18 “Adelaide” umpires and 1 “regional” umpire • 2-day practical training in Berri for 11 “Adelaide” umpires and 15 umpires from the Riverland • Three rules theory trainings held at Kensington Baseball Club • Introduction to Baseball Umpiring course run to Little League players and parents at Sturt Baseball Club • Monthly rules and mechanics meetings held during the season at Kensington Baseball Club.
Many thanks to Neil Poulton, Fred Halligan and Andrew Bell for their assistance in delivering this program. There was very little interest from non-BUASA members and I hope to increase awareness of these sessions for future seasons.
Upon taking over this role, I made a lengthy submission for amendments to the playing conditions and the By Laws that relate to on-field matters. These submissions were to clear up ambiguity and to make the documents more readable. Only a few of these suggestions were adopted and I will continue to lobby for changes. I welcome the invitation from the General Manager to be involved in a Committee to review these documents. Of particular importance will be the Heat Policy and how that is adopted in the finals in each grade. We need to ensure that any changes that will be adopted can be sufficiently communicated to all clubs and umpires to prevent the issues early in the season just gone.
I was able to provide funding for Payne Sowter and Ian Reval to attend the MLB Australian Academy during 2015 which included some games between Australia and Canada’s national U18 teams in preparation for their upcoming WBSC World Cup.
It is very concerning that the downward trend of total umpires continues (26 down to 23). This smaller pool of officials was assigned to a total of 1,064 appointments, a 1.7% increase on last season. This was mainly due to an expansion of the days of the week that games were played allowing umpires to officiate on more days of the week. This resulted in a new record for most games umpired in a season of 115, including a staggering 49 Division 1 games.
Overall, I was able to appoint an umpire to around 40% of all games (736 games). Whilst all Division 1 games were appointed an umpire, as we move down the grades, in particular junior grades, appointed umpires were less frequent. This is a trend I hope to reverse.
Two-thirds of all finals games were covered by a “league” umpire, with more and more games covered as the weeks progressed, culminating with every Grand Final being officiated by at least one nationally accredited umpire. The games that were not covered were mainly due to Division 1 still being played on the Sunday of the first week of junior finals.
Whilst there were a number of new umpires interested in starting their career, a failure by Baseball Australia to release the new accreditation resources meant no new umpires could become accredited, nor any existing umpires were able to upgrade.
41 South Australian Baseball League Inc. STATE DIRECTOR OF UMPIRING
Once again appointments were posted on the Baseball SA umpiring website. To address issues raised regarding appointments in previous seasons, I introduced a regular weekly email to club contacts advising that the umpire appointments were available which also included links to the appointments.
The inefficiencies in IMG were clearly evident at the other end of the appointment process, when I understood the time involved in processing the club invoices for umpires and making payments to the umpires. To overcome this issue I created a replacement process that significantly cut the triple handling of information. This new process was quickly adopted by Baseball SA as the sole method of processing these payments.
We continue to be a supporter of the ‘Green Shirt Program’ but due to the four-month delay between ordering and delivery of the green shirts, they were unavailable to be provided this season. Given we now know of this significant lead-time for ordering of resources, we can better prepare for future seasons.
We had a number of umpires attend national championships and in particular Payne Sowter who was appointed as the plate umpire in the U18s Bronze Medal game and 3rd Base Umpire in the U18s gold medal game.
In addition to the training seminar held in Berri, I had preliminary talks with the leagues in Mt Gambier and Port Pirie to arrange for umpire training. Discussions were quite advanced with Port Pirie but they chose to opt out only a few weeks before the training was to be held.
I am happy to report that the umpires were looked after extremely well off the field during the Division 1 Grand Final series. I put this down to the great volunteers at Diamond Sports and also due to the extensive communication between myself and Baseball SA in the lead-up to the series.
Unfortunately, abuse of umpires by spectators tainted what would have been a great experience for the umpires involved. The abuse directed at umpires by spectators continues to increase and this can no longer be tolerated.
Thank you to the umpires who made themselves available throughout the year. A huge thank you also to Fred Halligan and Russell King for their assistance with the appointments.
With a year now complete in this role, and a solid foundation set, I plan to work with the baseball community to encourage more umpires into the game so we can continue to grow this great sport.
BLAKE HALLIGAN State Director of Umpiring
42 South Australian Baseball League Inc. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY
Each year, Baseball Australia partners with Major League Baseball to hold the Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program, an amateur academy which is designed to develop elite players on home soil and provide a pathway for players to potential professional and international baseball.
This year 54 players from around Australia, New Zealand and China headed to Surfer’s Paradise Baseball Club (QLD) for a month long program of games and rigorous training from local and international coaching staff. The academy provides a great opportunity for players to be exposed to the demands of professional baseball, learn plays and structures of national teams and allow players to get started or continue on a pathway to higher competition baseball.
Congratulations to Declan Steel, Jack O’Loughlin, Ky Hampton, Mason Clavell and Jordan McArdle for being invited to take part in this 2016 academy. It has been a privilege to watch you all develop into the elite players you are becoming and am excited to see how your baseball futures unfold.
Tyrone Hambly, Mark Hutton and I were invited to join the academy coaching staff and spent our time in the Gold Coast learning new drills, plays, tips and other tools to implement with our local and state teams and I plan to use these to reinvest in the development in our local coaches and players.
Being at the MLBAAP and noticing the amount of work and increased demands of our players during their daily schedule has highlighted the importance of preparation and trainings at the Bite Academy. The academy has introduced a new program which has been proven to help increase arm velocity and hopes it will form part of a national throwing program and we look forward to implementing in South Australia.
LANDON HERNANDEZ State Director of Coaching
43 South Australian Baseball League Inc. STATE UNDER 16
I am very pleased to report on the successful under 16 national championship team for 2016. However before I go into detail there are several people that need to be formally recognised and thanked. Although these people did not have a specific role directly with the team, their support and help gave us the direction we needed to get this squad on the correct path to success. The first is Lawrie Moore. Lawrie was a huge help behind the scenes when it come to the organisation of training times, helping with trainings and basically anything we asked of him. Without the help from Lawrie we would have not got to the same result, as his support was instrumental. The next guy who played a huge part was Lee Martin, although Dave Clavell was the teams EO, Lee helped get things in order before Dave came on board. This included organising and setting up tryout registration along with providing names and numbers for all parents and players. Lee also had a huge part in helping Dave settle into his first ever EO role. The other two people I need to thank are Andrew Scott and Charlie Ashcroft. Both of these people helped with tryouts and trainings in the early stages of the process. Andrew helped greatly in securing and organising the west beach facility for us while Charlie acted as on field coach throwing BP and hitting ground balls when coaches were absent. To all these people, thank you very much.
As a first year Head Coach I was lucky to have very strong support staff in Tony Probert, Lachy Eldridge and Dave Clavell as the team EO. Tony has had previous experience coaching in the Victorian program and brought a wealth of knowledge with him. He was a very handy asset to have onboard as his knowledge and understanding of tournament baseball is great. Lachy Eldridge has coached at level before but like myself is restively new to the scene. Lachy related extremely well to the boys and managed the pitching staff very well. Both he and Tony were huge additions to the coaching staff. Dave in his first EO role was also very useful. The trip flowed smoothly and there were no major issues which indicates that Dave did his job very well.
The 3 main areas of like to reflect on are the tryout process, goodwill series and NYC. The first of these bring the tryouts. Although we were pressed for time with the late instalment of the coaching staff, the tryouts seemed to flow reasonably well. Again with some added help from Charlie Ashcroft and Bob Baker, we were able produce a professional style tryout with enough hands on board. My only recommendation would be starting this process earlier in the future to allow more time to test the athletes before final selection is required. Other than that the tryout process flowed very well!
The goodwill series was again a great success. Playing in this tournament some 15 years ago produced some incredible baseball memories and friendships and its pleasing to see that it is still the case. Woodville still do a very good job of hosting the event and everybody that is involved makes it a great tournament. The SSK 16U team that came out this year was very strong, they played the game in a way that allowed us to learn a great deal from them. Our record against them was 1-6, however of those 6 looses only 1 was by more than a couple of runs. This tournament was the stepping stone to our success in Sydney, experiencing defeat to a very good side gave these boys a sense of desire and reiterated the fact that we’re not far from the mark!
Finally the Championship Tournament. It’s is no secret that SA are considered underdogs at a tournament like this. To the boys credit they handled themselves very well in every situation that got thrown our way, as well as handling themselves like men off the field at the hotel or wherever we were. Our record at the tournament was 8-3, the 3 losses coming twice from Victoria and once from WA. Of our 8 wins there 2 games that stand out in my mind as games that won us the tournament or at least gave us the chance to win. Game 1 against ACT. ACT had a very strong young pitcher throw 6-1/3 innings and really made us work hard for our first win. To the boys credit they battled and picked up their first win 3-2 with outstanding pitching efforts from Jack O’Loughlin and Ky Hampton. The other game that set us up during pool play was a come from behind win against NSW. After being 3-0 down late in the game, the boys battled back to hold a 5-4 win and give us a 2-0 start to the tournament! There were of coarse other games that also deserved mentioning I.e. The 10-0 win against WA however those 2 games stand out as games that brought us together and gave the boys a sense that they can win this thing!
In my time as a player for SA I achieved 2nd place 3 times in my junior state career. To take the field with these young men on championship day and finally take hold of that championship cup is some that none of us will ever forget. It was a proud moment for SA baseball and hopefully a taste of things to come. I think I speak for all my coaching staff and supporters when I say that this group of 20 young boys have done SA, their families and themselves proud.
TYRONE HAMBLY Head Coach State U16
44 South Australian Baseball League Inc. STATE UNDER 18
To begin I would like to congratulate Tyrone Hambly and the Under 16 Bite team for a well-deserved National Youth Championship, exciting for baseball in this state and hopefully something the Youth Bite program can build on.
I won’t look at each game individually but will break some statistics down for you to help provide some insight into where the U18 Bite tournament went well and not so well. If we were to break it down to offense, defence and pitching we can get a good idea of where the positives were and certainly where there is some work to be done moving forward.
Looking at offence, we had the league leading hitter in Jordan McArdle (congratulations on the batting award) who hit an impressive .471 for the tournament. Overall we had the 3rd highest team batting average, second highest slugging percentage and led the tournament in on base percentage. We were 4th best in runs scored even though we led the tournament in strikeouts with 71. Overall we were pretty happy with the offensive production, but key areas to work on are the ability to put the ball in play more and having a better approach especially with runners in scoring position and two strikes.
Defensively we had the 7th best, or second worst fielding percentage, with the second highest number of errors for the tournament. Before and during the tournament the coaching staff spoke at length about preparation, understanding the game, which comes down to game time exposure, an area which has been highlighted for some time and really does need some attention moving forward.
Pitching was overall pretty solid throughout the tournament. There were a couple of hiccups along the way but all in all an outstanding job by the pitching staff. We did have the 5th best team .ERA and 6th best OPBA. Certainly room for improvement, but what has normally been an issue for us we were 4th overall for walks allowed; a massive improvement over the past few years.
The boys certainly played hard and at no time did we question their desire to do well, the challenge for many is accepting there are times, more so in baseball, where you don’t do well. It’s how you overcome this aspect to ensure you are ready for the next play, next at bat etc.
The saying ‘pitching and defence wins baseball games’; based on the above it could not be truer.
I would like to congratulate Jordan McArdle for winning the U18 Team Most Valuable Player, certainly no question about his efforts when away and certainly impressed us all with his leadership and direction throughout the tournament. I would also like to congratulate Brodie Macbeth who won the Coaches Award. Brodie was absolutely outstanding on the mound. Brodie always battled on the mound and worked hard to create opportunities to win baseball games. With a 1.76 ERA he is truly deserving of recognition for his efforts.
To finish, thank you to all the parents; your hard work before the tournament, during the Goodwill Series and certainly whilst away supporting the team is noted and appreciated. Thank you to the amazing coaching staff of Justin Clark, Phil Hirschausen and Executive Officer, Blake Armstrong. Can’t say enough about these men and their willingness to inspire and educate eager baseball minds. It was a pleasure to work and learn beside you and I thank you sincerely for your hard work.
DAMIEN NORSWORTHY Head Coach
45 South Australian Baseball League Inc. STATE UNDER 25
Once again we travelled to Cairns and due to the cost it was very difficult to get the players with only travelling with 16.
The tournament started well beating reigning champions, NSW, on day 1. After this win we sat back a bit and the next 2 days were tough suffering losses to NSW, QLD & Vic.
In a strange tournament with only 4 sides we bounced back beating QLD & Vic to finish equal second but due to NSW having the overall for & against in our 2 games we had to settle for 3rd and an elimination game with Victoria.
This game was a fantastic ball game going 11 innings with the tie breaker rule being put in play we went down by 1 run due to a fantastic diving catch by the Vics to finish the game.
Kyal Williams was stand out winning the MVP and some younger players certainly showed they have bright futures.
A massive thanks to Russel Hart & Luke Prokopec for their assistance and guidance.
Our EO, Kristen Webb, was again magnificent ensuring that everything ran smoothly for the coaches and importantly the players.
PETER KITCHINGMAN Head Coach
46 South Australian Baseball League Inc. ADELAIDE BITE ACADEMY
Over the past 12 months, Baseball SA continued to run our academy programs; Little League, Youth and an invitational only Elite program for high performing players. With the support of my talented and very skilled coaching staff, these programs are designed to improve player skills and talents and ready them for the next level of their baseball lives.
The Little League (8-12yrs) and Youth (13-18yrs) academies are co-ed programs open to players of any skill level and are structured to promote a fun, enjoyable learning environment for participants whilst increasing the individuals’ skills for the club season ahead. Each session is designed to challenge players and give them the necessary drills and skills to achieve new heights.
This year’s academy is an 8 week program commencing mid-July and will use the 2015 program as a foundation while improving in some areas such as implementing an arm strengthening program and introducing a strength and conditioning program.
The comparison of player data at the beginning and closure of the 2015 academy showed great improvements in players such as increase in running times, arm and bat speeds along with consistent mechanics. We were very excited following last year’s results and hope to see further improvements in 2016 participants.
The Elite academy, however, is designed as a college and professional based program with a focus on preparing players for South Australian state teams to the Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program, colleges or professional teams in Australia and United States.
The 2016 program ran from April through July with 24 elite players training at West Beach, 3 times a week with each session having a specific focus to assist players to improve every area of their game and skills. The new facilities at Diamond Sports opened up great opportunities for players training sessions including strength and conditioning, upper body, core and legs with use of the gym facilities, utilising kettle bells, medicine balls and resistance bands and beach/ water training sessions, followed by hitting and fielding sessions on Bennett Field and indoor training centre.
Programs such as the academies do not run without a lot of support.
Firstly, I would like to thank the Pett family and Mark Haylock for donating our gym equipment.
David Trevaskis and David Hirst for volunteering their time to assist coaching while working towards their coaching accreditations.
My coaching staff; Baseball SA staff, in particular Andrew Scott and Matthew Williams, Lawrie Moore, Tyrone Hambly and Damien Norsworthy for challenging each player each session and pushing themselves to constantly improve to be the very best coaches for our state they can be.
LANDON HERNANDEZ State Director of Coaching / Academy Director
47 South Australian Baseball League Inc. WOMEN’S BASEBALL LEAGUE
Thanks to the hard work of Baseball SA staff and generosity of the Office of Recreation and Sport, Baseball SA were given the opportunity to reinstate the South Australian Women’s Baseball League.
The inaugural season saw over seventy women registered, participate in regular training sessions and compete in a six game season between November 2015 and April 2016 ending in a grand final and all-star game. Baseball SA and Softball SA were privileged to host former All American Girls Baseball League pitcher, Jeneane Lesko, for the WBL all-star game in April 2 with Ms Lesko throwing the first pitch, presenting the end of game medals and culminated with her award winning presentation.
We had a great first season with an enthusiastic group of women who were always willing to give their best and always wanting to play! Congratulations needs to go to the recipients of the 2015/16 coaches awards – Ashley George, Elizabeth Ward, Katy Laidlaw and Bianca Smith and the all-star game MVP; Tara Andrews. Following the success of our first WBL season, Baseball SA is planning on expanding the league from four to six teams with four teams advancing to post season, another all-star game and hopes of sending a senior women’s team to represent South Australia at the national championships.
I would like to thank the league’s coaching staff; Georgina Gordon, Julie Wadham and Jess Wadley for their huge support and efforts during the season which allowed the league to run so smoothly and creating a positive and fun atmosphere for every player regardless of experience.
I would also like to pass on a particular thanks to Lawrie Moore for his tireless efforts both on and off the field. He has consistently gone above and beyond and I am truly grateful for his assistance and outstanding efforts.
Thank you to all who supported the league this year, we are looking forward to seeing you all on the diamond again next season.
LANDON HERNANDEZ State Director of Coaching / Women’s Baseball League Director
48 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SA WINTERBALL ASSOCIATION
It’s with great pleasure that I present my report. It was a great honour to be President again as I had some big shoes to fill. To our outgoing President Matt Miles I would like to thank him for his work as President for the last 7 years, and for his support in the smooth change over.
The last 12 months have been the most exciting time for the SAWBA, and there were a number of achievements for our association.
• A new logo for the association. • Premiership medals were presented to all grades. • Life membership awarded to Matt Miles. • 4 grand finals were played at Diamond Sports and for the first time in our history a grand final played under lights. • This year we welcomed South Ball and Golden Grove winter competitions into our association.
I would like to thank the following: • Ryan Barmby for his tireless work over the last 5 years as Secretary. • The committee for their commitment to SAWBA to make it a better and stronger competition. • Management of Diamond Sports for their efforts in getting the grounds ready for the grand finals. • Kevin Shepherdson and Mark Brougham from Baseball SA for their help and valuable assistance throughout the past year.
Congratulations to winners and MVP in grand finals. • HUGH FRANKE LEAGUE – ANGELS, MVP – A. McKENZIE (Angels) • JIM BEARE LEAGUE – REBELS GOLD, MVP – C. HIRSCHAUSEN (Rebels Gold) • MARTIN FOSTER LEAGUE – WILD BULLS, MVP – D. MATTHEWMAN (Wild Bulls) • MIKE BEECH LEAGUE – FLINDERS BLUE WAVE, MVP – M. MILES (Flinders Blue Wave) • PETER McGEAREY LEAGUE – ANGELS RED, MVP – M. SCICIUNA (Angels Red)
Peter McGearey President
49 South Australian Baseball League Inc. DIVISION 1
Minor Premiers - Glenelg Baseball Club
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 36 26 8 2 245 87 158 75 54 2 Glenelg Baseball Club 36 25 8 3 199 95 104 73.61 53 3 Kensington Baseball Club 36 25 9 2 231 1278 104 72.22 52 4 Woodville District Baseball Club 36 24 10 2 206 128 78 69.44 50 5 Goodwood Baseball Club 36 24 11 1 224 123 101 68.06 49 6 West Torrens Baseball Club 36 22 13 1 209 130 79 62.5 45 7 Sturt Baseball Club 36 16 17 3 156 217 -61 48.61 35 8 Adelaide Angels 36 15 18 3 128 130 -2 45.83 33 9 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 36 14 22 0 121 223 -102 38.89 28 10 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 36 12 21 3 129 213 -84 37.5 27 11 GGCD Baseball Club 36 12 24 0 88 159 -71 33.33 24 12 Southern Districts Baseball Club 36 8 28 0 126 193 -67 22.22 16 13 Northern Districts Baseball Club 36 1 35 0 91 328 -237 2.78 2
50 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 2015/16 DIVISION ONE GRAND FINAL
WOODVILLE V GLENELG
Tenacious Tigers Terrific
A disciplined, hard-working Glenelg Tigers are the 2015/16 division one baseball premiers, after wrapping up the grand final series against Woodville in two games, at Bennett Field, West Beach on Saturday night, 6-4 and 6-0.
Glenelg absorbed a courageous fightback from Woodville to claim game one on the Friday night, in the best-of-three series.
And while the Tigers won the game, it was more so that Woodville lost it, gifting Glenelg five of its runs from a comedy of errors.
While the Tigers first run in the opening inning was earned the conventional way, with Evan LeBlanc hitting a double and scoring on Beau Bishop’s single, in building its 6-0 lead over the following four digs, Glenelg took advantage of four errors.
A three-run third frame, after two outs and an infield error, was followed by Corey Lyon’s two-run double and Craig Handy’s run-scoring single.
Then in the fourth and fifth innings, Glenelg added insurance runs from two-out errors, which proved a big enough lead to win the game.
Josh Tols had pitched admirably for the Senators over five frames, conceding six hits for seven K2s, with only one of the six runs against him earned, before making way for Troy Harrison, who threw hit-less ball the rest of the way.
As for Glenelg, Hayden McGearey was again on fire from the mound, pitching shut-out ball over the game’s first seven innings, before tiring in the eighth frame.
After surrendering singles to Daniel Turner and Ben Lodge before recoding the first out of the eighth, McGearey left the contest, with Greg Mosel coming onto the mound.
Mosel recorded an out before surrendering a two-run single to Wilson Lee, then walked two batters before Matt Williams came on in an attempt to put out the fire for the Bays.
But Williams walked the first batter he faced, then gave up an amazing two-run infield single to the speedy Gary Owens, and the Senators were back in the contest at 6-4.
Williams earned his keep though by pitching a scoreless ninth inning, including striking out the final hitter of the game, to earn the save.
Recently crowned Capps Medallist Wes Roemer proved his worth with an outstanding pitching performance in game two, to add the best player in the grand final series to his wonderful season. 51 South Australian Baseball League Inc. 2015/16 Grand Final Results
In eight innings of work from the mound, Roemer conceded just two hits and three walks for eight K2s, while also scoring the game’s first run in the opening inning after doubling and scoring on Evan LeBlanc’s single.
Glenelg took control of the game in the fourth frame with a pair of runs, after Beau Bishop, Corey Lyon and Craig Handy hit doubles, then put the result beyond reach in the sixth, when Andrew Qualmann’s two-out error-forcing hit saw another three runs cross the plate.
After collecting the save in game one, Matt Williams came on in relief to finish the final contest, throwing a three-up, three-down ninth frame, including a fly out to man-of-the match Roemer at right field.
On their season form, the Tigers are worthy premiers, snarling their first flag since 2005.
Woodville had few highlights, although Jackson Lodge “gutted” out the complete game in a solid outing from the mound.
ROBERT LAIDLAW
GAME ONE 18 March 2016, Bennett Field, Diamond Sports, West Beach
GLENELG 6, WOODVILLE 4 R H E WOODVILLE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 4 5 4 GLENELG 1 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 X 6 6 1
Pitchers: WOODVILLE - TOLS, Josh; HARRISON, Troy (6) and WEINERT, Troy. GLENELG - MCGEAREY, Hayden; MOSEL, Greg (8); WILLIAMS, Matthew (8) and BISHOP, Beau
Win- MCGEAREY, Hayden Save-WILLIAMS, Matthew Loss- TOLS, Josh
GAME TWO 19 March 2016, Bennett Field, Diamond Sports, West Beach
GLENELG 6, WOODVILLE 0 R H E WOODVILLE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 GLENELG 1 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 X 6 9 1
Pitchers: WOODVILLE - LODGE, Jackson and WEINERT, Troy. GLENELG - ROEMER, Wes; WILLIAMS, Matthew (9) and BISHOP, Beau
Win-ROEMER, Wes Loss-LODGE, Jackson
52 South Australian Baseball League Inc. DIVISION 2 PREMIERS
ADELAIDE 4, KENSINGTON 5
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Woodville District Baseball Club 16 13 2 1 174 45 129 84.38 27 2 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 16 13 3 0 99 38 61 81.25 26 3 Glenelg Baseball Club 16 10 4 2 121 57 64 68.75 22 4 West Torrens Baseball Club 17 11 5 1 143 58 85 67.65 23 5 Adelaide Angels 15 9 4 2 75 55 20 66.67 20 6 Sturt Baseball Club 15 7 6 2 82 90 -8 53.33 16 7 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 15 8 7 0 63 118 -55 53.33 16 8 Goodwood Baseball Club 16 7 6 3 85 68 17 53.13 17 9 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 16 6 10 0 68 72 -4 37.5 12 10 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 15 5 9 1 52 118 -66 36.67 11 11 Southern Districts Baseball Club 16 4 11 1 67 103 -36 28.13 9 12 Northern Districts Baseball Club 16 1 14 1 64 136 -72 9.38 3 13 GGCD Baseball Club 15 1 14 0 32 167 -135 6.67 2
DIVISION 3 PREMIERS
WOODVILLE 14, GLENELG 7
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Goodwood Baseball Club 17 13 2 2 166 75 91 82.35 28 2 GGCD Baseball Club 16 12 3 1 128 52 76 78.13 25 3 Woodville Baseball Club 16 12 3 1 160 66 94 78.13 25 4 Glenelg Baseball Club 16 11 5 0 143 70 73 67.75 22 5 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 16 9 6 1 149 74 75 59.38 19 6 Southern Districts Baseball Club 16 9 6 1 111 88 23 59.38 19 7 West Torrens Baseball Club 16 7 6 3 117 103 14 53.13 17 8 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 16 7 7 2 123 101 22 50 16 9 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 16 7 9 0 91 165 -74 43.75 14 10 Adelaide Angels 15 5 9 1 90 107 -17 36.67 11 11 Sturt Baseball Club 17 4 11 2 87 187 -100 29.47 10 12 Northern Districts Baseball Club 15 1 14 0 53 181 -128 6.67 2 13 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 16 0 16 0 42 191 -149 0 0
53 South Australian Baseball League Inc. DIVISION 4 PREMIERS
GLENELG 8, GOODWOOD 9
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Glenelg Baseball Club 16 15 1 0 166 62 104 93.75 30 2 East Torrens Baseball Club 16 14 2 0 157 57 100 87.50 28 3 Goodwood Baseball Club 16 11 4 1 143 70 73 71.88 23 4 West Torrens Baseball Club 16 10 5 1 133 66 67 65.63 21 5 Sturt Baseball Club 16 10 6 0 127 77 50 62.5 20 6 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 16 9 7 0 124 116 8 56.25 18 7 Southern DistrictsBaseball Club 16 7 7 2 120 108 12 50 16 8 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 16 7 9 0 113 126 -13 43.75 14 9 Adelaide Angels 15 6 9 0 102 138 -36 40 12 10 Woodville District Baseball Club 16 5 11 0 101 123 -22 31.25 10 11 GGCD Baseball Club 16 5 11 0 88 142 -54 31.25 10 12 Northern Districts Baseball Club 15 2 13 0 67 176 -109 13.33 4 13 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 16 0 16 0 66 246 -180 0 0
DIVISION 5 PREMIERS
HENLEY & GRANGE 14, SOUTHERN DISTRICTS 2
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 17 15 2 0 177 81 96 88.24 30 2 Southern Districts Baseball Club 16 13 2 1 181 54 127 84.37 27 3 Glenelg Baseball Club 17 12 4 1 185 95 90 73.53 25 4 GGCD Baseball Club 17 8 7 2 148 112 36 52.94 18 5 Adelaide Angels 16 7 8 1 140 151 -11 46.88 15 6 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 3 1 2 0 10 44 -34 33.33 2 7 Goodwood Baseball Club 16 4 11 1 83 133 -50 28.13 9 8 Sturt Baseball Club 16 3 13 0 111 186 -75 18.75 6 9 Dodgers 16 1 15 0 45 224 -179 6.25 2
54 South Australian Baseball League Inc. DIVISION 6 PREMIERS
PORT ADELAIDE 8, GLENELG 1
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 17 14 3 0 219 73 146 82.35 28 2 Adelaide Angels 17 14 3 0 193 97 96 82.35 28 3 Southern Districts Baseball Club 17 13 4 0 197 87 110 76.47 26 4 West Torrens Baseball Club 17 13 4 0 153 84 69 76.47 26 5 Glenelg Baseball Club 17 10 5 2 166 133 33 64.71 22 6 East Torrens Baseball Club 17 10 7 0 156 133 23 58.82 20 7 GGCD Baseball Club 17 9 7 1 182 148 34 55.88 19 8 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 17 9 7 1 172 170 2 55.88 19 9 Tigers 17 8 8 1 147 130 17 50 17 10 Hawks 17 5 12 0 107 213 -106 29.41 10 11 Woodville District Baseball Club 17 3 11 3 132 187 -55 26.47 9 12 Northern Districts Baseball Club 17 3 14 0 78 173 -95 17.65 6 13 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 17 2 15 0 72 222 -150 11.76 4 14 Playford City Baseball Club 17 1 14 2 101 225 -124 11.76 4
DIVISION 7 PREMIERS
EAST TORRENS 8, GLENELG 7
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 16 15 1 0 221 117 104 93.75 30 2 Flinders University Baseball Club 17 14 3 0 203 75 128 82.35 28 3 Glenelg Baseball Club 16 12 4 0 191 111 80 75 24 4 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 17 10 7 0 165 137 28 52.82 20 5 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 147 10 7 0 186 182 4 58.82 20 6 Sturt Baseball Club 17 7 9 1 178 147 31 44.12 15 7 Southern Districts Baseball Club 17 7 9 1 142 171 -29 44.12 15 8 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 17 4 12 1 145 215 -70 26.47 9 9 Adelaide Angels 16 3 12 1 113 182 -69 21.88 7 10 GGCD Baseball Club 17 0 17 0 93 300 -207 0 0 11 Northern Districts Baseball Club 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 Playford City Baseball Club 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
55 South Australian Baseball League Inc. DON RICE LEAGUE NORTH PREMIERS
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 7 7 0 0 51 11 40 100 14 2 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 7 4 3 0 42 35 7 57.14 8 3 Northern Districts Baseball Club 8 4 4 0 40 49 -9 50 8 4 Dodgers 8 3 5 0 24 39 -15 37.5 6 5 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club 8 1 6 0 30 45 -15 14.29 5 6 GGCD Baseball Club 1 0 1 0 0 5 -5 0 0 7 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
DON RICE LEAGUE SOUTH PREMIERS
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 West Torrens Baseball Club 9 8 1 0 57 17 40 88.89 16 2 Sturt Baseball Club 8 6 2 0 35 25 10 75 12 3 Glenelg Baseball Club 8 5 3 0 52 33 19 62.5 10 4 Woodville District Baseball Club 8 4 4 0 24 35 -11 50 8 5 Adelaide Angels 9 4 5 0 61 66 -5 44.44 8 6 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 8 2 6 0 34 48 -14 25 4 7 Goodwood Baseball Club 8 0 8 0 15 52 -37 0 0
DON RICE LEAGUE GRAND FINAL
EAST TORRENS 1, STURT 9
56 South Australian Baseball League Inc. UNDER 17 PREMIERS
WEST TORRENS 6, GLENELG 4
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 West Torrens Baseball Club 14 13 1 0 186 32 154 92.86 26 2 Sturt Baseball Club 14 12 1 1 127 57 70 89.29 25 3 Glenelg Baseball Club 14 12 2 0 128 43 85 85.71 24 4 Southern Distrcts Baseball Club 14 10 4 0 144 51 93 71.43 20 5 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 14 10 4 0 165 68 97 71.43 20 6 Woodville District Baseball Club 14 10 4 0 113 62 51 71.43 20 7 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 14 9 4 1 135 87 48 67.86 19 8 Adelaide Angels 14 8 6 0 95 94 1 57.14 16 9 Eagles 14 8 6 0 114 114 0 57.14 16 10 Goodwood Baseball Club 14 7 7 0 89 110 -21 50 14 11 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 14 6 8 0 117 86 31 42.86 12 12 Northern Districts Baseball Club 14 5 9 0 63 106 -43 35.71 10 13 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 14 4 10 0 88 137 -49 28.57 8 14 GGCD Baseball Club 14 3 11 0 69 150 -81 21.43 6 15 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 14 1 13 0 50 202 -152 7.14 2 16 Hawks 15 1 14 0 56 212 -156 6.67 2 17 Rams 15 0 15 0 41 165 -124 0 0
57 South Australian Baseball League Inc. UNDER 15/1 PREMIERS
EAST TORRENS 10, ADELAIDE 12
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 East Torrens Baseball Club 15 13 2 0 198 61 137 86.67 26 2 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 15 13 2 0 148 63 85 86.67 26 3 Adelaide Angels 15 11 3 1 146 54 92 76.67 23 4 Southern Districts Baseball Club 15 11 3 1 152 82 70 76.67 23 5 Glenelg Baseball Club 15 10 5 0 147 65 82 66.67 20 6 GGCD Baseball Club 15 9 6 0 100 97 3 60 18 7 West Torrens Baseball Club 15 6 9 0 83 101 -18 40 12 8 Sturt Baseball Club 15 5 10 0 82 177 -95 33.33 10 9 Goodwood Baseball Club 15 4 11 0 97 142 -45 26.67 8 10 Woodville District Baseball Club 15 3 11 1 60 154 -94 23.33 7 11 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 15 2 13 0 74 149 -75 13.33 4 12 Kensington Baseball Club 15 1 13 1 66 206 -140 10 3
UNDER 15/2 PREMIERS
GLENELG 16, GOLDEN GROVE CENTRAL DISTRICTS 5
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Northern Districts Baseball Club 13 10 3 0 147 85 62 76.92 20 2 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 13 10 3 0 157 112 45 76.92 20 3 Glenelg Baseball Club 13 9 4 0 172 68 104 69.23 18 4 GGCD Baseball Club 13 7 6 0 163 95 68 53.85 14 5 Goodwood Baseball Club 13 4 9 0 95 142 -47 30.77 8 6 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 13 3 10 0 88 171 -83 23.08 6 7 Southern Districts Baseball Club 12 2 10 0 40 183 -143 16.67 4
58 South Australian Baseball League Inc. UNDER 13/1 PREMIERS
EAST TORRENS 8, SOUTHERN DISTRICTS 5
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 15 14 1 0 195 26 169 93.33 28 2 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 15 14 1 0 136 50 86 93.33 28 3 Southern Districts Baseball Club 15 12 3 0 171 65 106 80 24 4 Goodwood Baseball Club 15 10 3 2 181 84 97 73.33 22 5 Sturt Baseball Club 15 10 5 0 204 77 127 66.67 20 6 Glenelg Baseball Club 15 9 5 1 131 62 69 63.33 19 7 Saints 15 6 8 1 105 145 -40 43.33 13 8 Northern Districts Baseball Club 15 5 9 1 134 117 17 36.67 11 9 Adelaide Angels 15 5 9 1 128 167 -39 36.67 11 10 GGCD Baseball Club 14 5 9 0 107 145 -38 35.71 10 11 West Torrens Baseball Club 15 4 10 1 70 167 -97 30 9 12 Woodville District Baseball Club 15 4 11 0 102 202 -100 26.67 8 13 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 15 2 12 1 66 209 143 16.67 5 14 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 15 1 14 0 38 226 -188 6.67 2 15 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 1 0 1 0 0 22 -22 0 0
UNDER 13/2 PREMIERS
INDIANS 10, HENLEY & GRANGE 13
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Indians 14 11 3 0 205 120 85 78.57 22 2 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 13 10 3 0 171 133 38 76.92 20 3 Glenelg Baseball Club 14 10 3 1 174 104 70 75 21 4 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 14 10 4 0 160 97 63 71.43 20 5 Goodwood Baseball Club 14 9 5 0 160 128 32 64.29 18 6 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 14 7 7 0 144 143 1 50 14 7 Southern Districts Baseball Club 14 6 6 2 149 151 -2 50 14 8 Rams 9 3 6 0 103 110 -7 33.33 6 9 Sturt Baseball Club 13 2 11 0 110 198 -88 15.38 4 10 GGCD Baseball Club 14 1 11 2 145 220 -75 14.29 4 11 Woodville District Baseball Club 13 1 11 1 94 207 -113 11.54 3
59 South Australian Baseball League Inc. UNDER 11 NORTH PREMIERS
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Henley & Grange Baseball Club 11 10 0 1 127 52 75 95.45 21 2 Kensington Baseball Club Inc 12 8 3 1 81 55 26 70.83 17 3 Port Adelaide Baseball Club 13 8 4 1 92 69 23 65.38 17 4 Northern Districts Baseball Club 13 6 6 1 84 87 -3 50 13 5 East Torrens Payneham Baseball Club 12 4 8 0 76 13 -37 33.33 8 6 Gawler Rangers Baseball Club Inc 12 3 9 0 67 101 -37 25 6 7 Woodville District Baseball Club 13 2 11 0 54 100 -46 15.37 4 8 GGCD Baseball Club 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
UNDER 11 SOUTH PREMIERS
Pos Team P W L D F A SD WP Pts
1 Adelaide Angels 13 12 0 1 132 35 97 96.15 25 2 Southern Districts Baseball Club 14 9 5 0 124 75 49 64.29 18 3 Glenelg Baseball Club 13 7 4 2 98 91 7 61.54 16 4 Tigers 13 7 5 1 90 62 28 57.69 15 5 Sturt Baseball Club 13 5 7 1 69 92 -23 42.31 11 6 Goodwood Baseball Club 13 5 8 0 69 130 -61 38.49 10 7 Indians 15 4 8 3 85 109 -24 36.67 11 8 West Torrens Baseball Club 13 4 9 0 74 103 -29 30.77 8 9 Gwd Tyros 13 2 9 2 74 118 -44 23.08 6
60 South Australian Baseball League Inc. NORTHERN T-BALL PROGRAM
Thanks to support from Northern Districts Baseball Club and City of Salisbury, Baseball SA were given the opportunity to run a term long T-Ball program at schools in the Northern suburbs of Adelaide for students in years 2-5. Seven schools in the council area took part in the program seeing Baseball SA staff and Adelaide Bite players run clinics during their physical education classes, ending the term with a carnival at Northern Districts Baseball Club.
The program ran throughout term 4, 2015, with six, one hour long school clinics for each class participating. Each session consisted of fundamental drills and games, giving students the best possible foundation of the sport in preparation for the carnival at terms end. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Baseball SA and Adelaide Bite staff, players and Northern District import players for their support in running these school based sessions. With their support we were able to expose baseball to over 220 students, promote baseball and teach it correctly from the grass roots level.
December 2nd, 2015, saw the official closure of the program with the Northern Districts T-Ball Carnival at Northern Districts Baseball Club. Thanks to the school clinics, we hosted 6 schools with 23 teams entered in competition, resulting in 10 games being played simultaneously during the day. The carnival was a huge success with only fantastic feedback received from students, teachers, parents and support staff.
Our goal for this program was to introduce schools to baseball and leave the students wanting more. Through the running of the program, we have seen immediate interest from students with approximately 11 participants requesting information about local clubs and competition.
Finally, I would like to thank Paul Zimny and the City of Salisbury for their continued support with the Northern T-Ball Program, Northern Districts Baseball Club for the use of their facilities, canteen, players and members support in running the carnival and Adelaide Bite players for giving up their time in assisting with coaching and umpiring the carnival games.
We look forward to running more council and school based programs like this one, in the future.
LANDON HERNANDEZ State Director of Coaching / Program Director
61 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SCHOOL CLINICS & TRAINING CAMPS
Over the past 12 months, Baseball SA has implemented many training and developments programs, clinics and camps as well as having the opportunity to partner with organisations, such as Sports Camps Australia, to assist with the development of players and introduce Baseball to the South Australian community.
During the season, we ran two baseball camps in conjunction with Sports Camps Australia, a national organisation which promotes sport participation during school holidays all over Australia, one being held at East Torrens Baseball Club, the other at Norwood Oval.
Introducing the Adelaide Bite Training Camps each school holidays has provided a “mini academy” program designed to give participants access to professional coaching sessions in pitching, hitting, fielding and game situations for players 10-18 years of age with any skill level.
Being based in West Beach has provided more opportunities thanks to the access on Bennett Field and the Indoor Training Facility, as well as partnering with local business such as the Mega Adventure Park to reward participants for their efforts during the camp.
Increasing the focus on development in country baseball, I have worked with Roger Chuck, Sean Horrigan, and Scott Gladstone to bring camps and clinics to Mt Gambier and their local schools. Later this year, Baseball SA will be holding two more camps out in Mt. Gambier to help with development and preseason.
Other school holiday clinics being introduced this year include the all-day training camp. These camps were more focused on games with a quick instruction on fundamentals. One clinic was held at Norwood while the other was at Diamond Sports, West Beach, and had over sixty participants.
Baseball SA implemented a regular development program in the Skill Specific Training Sessions each Friday from 5-9pm. These session have given participants the chance to focus on different skills each week. Weekly sessions rotated from pitching and catching, infield, hitting, and outfield. This also allowed players to get an introduction to the game, developing on current skills, or try other positions that they might not have had a chance to play during the previous season.
These programs do not just run on their own and could not function without the support of my coaching staff and volunteers.
I particularly want to thank: Tony Probert and Family, East Torrens Baseball Club, Ben Lodge, Matt Williams, Andrew Scott, Scott Gladstone, Mason Pickard, Mitchell Lightbody, Jordan McArdle, Glenys Snelgrove, Pattie Tucker, Laura Bond, Bianca Smith and Logan Brokaw.
LANDON HERNANDEZ State Director of Coaching
62 South Australian Baseball League Inc. LITTLE LEAGUE - ADELAIDE SEAHAWKS
2016 was the second year of the Adelaide Seahawks with players from Sturt, Southern Districts and Goodwood. The try outs took place in December with a selection panel of Mark Haylock, Marty Hall, Jeremy Paparella, Stan Warrilow and Scott Pratt and a training squad selected.
The squad trained from early January twice a week and the team was finalised in March by Scott Pratt as head coach, Jeremy Paparella as assistant coach, Tom Becker as pitching coach and Mitch Dawson as assistant coach/executive officer.
The development team was also chosen in March with Mark Paparella head coach, Troy Cook as assistant coach, Mark Hutton pitching coach and Julian Smith as executive officer. 12 players were selected 2 were reserves from the Charter team and 10 were players all eligible for selection in the charter next year. There was a big focus for the three clubs to become one and create a culture that would give all players in the three clubs a team that they would want to strive to be in.
The focus on the trainings were performing under pressure situations, game situation drills and lots of repetition on the basics as well as strength and conditioning.
Heading into the State Championships at West Beach we felt we were well prepared but after losing the first game we had to regroup. We knew that we could perform better than what we had and felt the boys had struggled with the first game nerves.
The boys focused on our team goals and came back strong and all performed very well winning the next two and also winning the State Championship game.
On top of this our development team were also undefeated champions.
We had developed a great team culture, the families all came together as one, the coaches worked very well together and the boys had so much fun. It was great to see all the players improve over 4 months in the Seahawks team. This tournament is great for junior baseball and having both Charter and development teams all playing at the same venue and the same weekend creates such a great atmosphere for all the charter teams.
After qualifying for the National Championships in Lismore in June we set out an extensive training program 3 times a week a total of 8 hours. Our training was focused on simulated games, games against The Rays and continued work on game situations and lots of repetition.
The National Championships in Lismore where 20 teams compete with the prize being an all expenses paid trip to the Little League World Series in America we felt we were well prepared and the boys were ready to go.
63 South Australian Baseball League Inc. LITTLE LEAGUE - ADELAIDE SEAHAWKS
Unfortunately we lost our first game in extra innings going down 2-3 to Swan Hill Aces and then finished the qualifying round 2-2 finishing 10th. The next round we finished with a 1-2 record and an overall placing of 14th which was a disappointing end to a tournament that had so much promise.
On a positive we were awarded The Sportsmanship award for the tournament. This awarded is due to the great enthusiasm and spirit our boys showed during the tournament. Whenever possible our boys were all out watching and cheering loudly for The Rays. Also our families were very vocal and fantastic supporters with their red supporter tops and the Seahawks chant which is now famous throughout Lismore – See who - Seahawks!!
It was also great to see The Rays supporting us whenever they could and a big thank you to the boys and Andrew Sperling, Burke Weber, Dominic Hodges and David Trevaskis and their families for all their support. Although a disappointing result we all had an enjoyable time with all the boys making huge improvements and this experience has also made them better baseballers and people.
I believe that sometimes we can get lost trying to chase a result when in actual fact it is the Little League program which is a great way to develop 11 and 12 year olds and give them a great opportunity to learn so much to help improve their baseball.
It was great to see the boys form lifelong friendships with their team mates, The Rays team and teams from many interstate teams. Also to have such a great group of parents who supported their son’s and also made great friendships within the “Seahawks family”
Congratulations to Bradlee Marsh and Robbie Brennan for being selected to play for Australia in the Cal Ripken World Series in last July along with Riley Yeatman.
A special mention to umpires Ian Reval, Russell King and Paul Sowter for their advice and time. I would also like to thank Matt Williams, Landon Hernandez, Nathan Davison, Andrew Scott and Lawrie Moore for all their help, advice and assistance.
Thank you for the opportunity to coach it was such a great learning experience for me and a fun and enjoyable time spent with a really good group of coaches, players and parents.
SCOTT PRATT Head Coach
64 South Australian Baseball League Inc. LITTLE LEAGUE - ADELAIDE MARLINS
The Adelaide Marlins started the long process in December with a great turnout of 30 young men. We ran 3 sessions to select a team of 14 and we were underway.
Training 3 times a week the boys worked really hard to get better. We worked on all facets of the game and to the boys credit they were open to learning new things.
Tournament time and we had a solid win against the eventual winners, the Seahawks. Unfortunately the next morning we had no answer for the Rays. At the end of pool play we sat in 3rd place on run differential.
Sunday had us having to win the early game to qualify for Lismore and the Nationals. Unfortunately again the Rays had us covered in all facets of the game eventually running out convincing winners. We quickly had to back up and play Mount Gambier for the Bronze medal. In a fun game played in the right way we claimed bronze.
I would like to thank Andrew Couzner, Leroy Urbina and Stuart Miller for looking after our very young Marlins Development team who had a great weekend.
Thanks to all the parents for your efforts in having the boys at training all those times and also for your fundraising efforts.
Special thanks to our scorers; Karryn Przibilla, Judy Burzacott and Andrew Kearvall our Pitch Counter.
To my coaching staff Craig Powell, Todd Symons and Darren Unger thanks so much for your time and effort over the journey. It’s been fun working with you.
Congratulations to Andrew and the Rays on your 4th place finish at the Nationals and to Scott and his Seahawks congrats on winning the Sportsmanship Award in Lismore.
Lastly congratulations to Robbie Brennan and Bradlee Marsh from the Seahawks and Riley Yeatman from the Marlins on your selection in the Australian side for the Cal Ripken World Series in the USA.
STEVE YEATMAN Head Coach
65 South Australian Baseball League Inc. LITTLE LEAGUE - ADELAIDE RAYS
The Little League Charter concept/program is a long, arduous affair (6-7 months) that requires full commitment from everyone involved. From the fore fathers of this program to today we continue to set very high standards and strive to be the best we can be. This year was no exception. Exceptional bunch of players, outstanding coaching staff (Burke Weber and Dominic Hodges) and a beautiful/supportive parent group enabled us to prepare ourselves for the State Championships to qualify for the Australian Little League Championship in Lismore.
We dogged our way through the State Championships to grab second spot and book our trip to Lismore. We selected our squad based on an even spread of talent and ability to grow within this program and grow they did. I am sure when we embarked on our venture to Lismore that we were not in most people’s reckoning to compete that strongly but as the old saying goes; it is not the dog in the fight but the fight in the dog.
We were magnificent during this tournament, every player featuring somewhere to come home with 4th spot out of 20 teams. Knocking out the 2 higher ranked Perth teams along the way and being the only state outside of NSW to have a team in the top 4. This program again has unearthed some players to watch in the years to come. I do not want to name anyone because this was a full team effort and all of this squad have the ability and courage to know they can compete in any competition in the future.
I cannot thank Burke and Dom enough for their support of me and some of my quirky ways and also Dave Trevaskis, who doubled up as our EO/4th Coach and did an amazing job. We again fundraised from within and raised around $8,000 which in turn went back to the parents who commit so heavily to this venture. What an effort by all involved.
I would also like to thank Baseball SA for their support and willingness to provide great training facilities during the process and any words of wisdom required to ensure we went away feeling we were as well prepared as possible.
The ADELAIDE RAYS Charter continues to grow and it was a pleasure playing some small part in it. I would also like to congratulate Scott and the SEAHAWKS for their Award of Sportsmanship but mainly for their unconditional support of the Rays during our epic ride – greatly appreciated by the coaching staff but also the players from both charters who made friends for life.
Baseball in SA the big winner here. Thanks again.
ANDREW SPERLING Head Coach
66 South Australian Baseball League Inc. JUNIOR LEAGUE - ADELAIDE PIRATES
Tryouts this year saw 30 players turn out keen to make the cut, it was also good to see all clubs in our charter represented. At the completion of tryouts we were impressed with the talent we had to choose from and were confident of picking a squad to make a good showing during the tournament. The makeup of our side consisted of 5 players from the previous year along with 2 players from the U16 gold medal winning team and the majority coming from the top two teams of the U15 competition.
After approx. a month of training our first real hit out was over the Christmas break against a squad from the Melbourne Institute of Baseball, which was a mix of U13 to U16 players. This was the perfect opportunity to run the boys through numerous positions and access the flexibility within our team. The team performed well against a talented squad and we were confident we had the players for a strong performance at the National tournament.
Our next serious hit out came at the SA State Charter Championships, going in with the expectation to come away victorious. The boys showed us what we were expecting by easily accounting for Mt. Gambier and then also having a comfortable 10-1win against the Adelaide Waves. The boys were full of confidence starting the championship game, but to the Waves credit they bounced back strong and fought it out all the way to last innings. After seven great innings which saw 3 lead changes it was unfortunately the Waves who came out victorious. The boys were extremely disappointed after being so confident at the start of the game, but from the coaches point of view we were still proud of the boys for the way they had played their ball over the weekend. They showed us they had the fight we expected and were keen to take it to the National tournament.
When the National tournament arrived, we found ourselves in a strong pool grouped with NSW Ryde Hawks, WA Eastern Phantoms and QLD Gold Coast Pirates. We had tried to instil into the boys the importance of a win in game 1. The game started the way we had planned with the boys coming out strong and confident to be leading 4-0 after 5 innings. Unfortunately in the 6th with 2 out Ryde began to string hits together and put 3 runs on the board. The 7th innings wasn’t much better with Ryde adding another 5 runs and running out winners 8-4. Again the boys were disappointed with the loss, but we were confident the way they had played we could bounce back over the next two pool games. Our next game was against the Eastern Phantoms and they came out strong to start the game. Our team held strong and fought back to take our first win 7-3. Our last game of pool play against the Gold Coast Pirates threw a couple of twists at us. If our maths was right based on other games, apart from needing a win we also had to hold Gold Coast to less than 5 runs in order to advance to the top 8 finals pool. Knowing Gold Coast had lost their first two games by atleast 10 runs each we were confident of a win and put faith the defence would hold the run total down. Unfortunately the baseball gods were not on our side and Gold Coast posted 5 runs in the 1st innings with 2 outs on the back of a few errors and good hitting. Eventually going down 11-1 our chance at playing in the finals pool was over.
After discussing the disappointment of missing finals play, the team focused on finishing the tournament as strong as possible and aimed finish top of the consolation pool. Our first consolation game was against Canberra where the boys took the honor of posting the highest score of the tournament by winning 28-7. The one risk of holding a tournament in Adelaide during late May was always going to be the weather and unfortunately rain ceased any further play for the most of the tournament with only the top 4 finals being completed.
I believe we had let an opportunity slip through our fingers with the team that we had but hopefully the boys took away that baseball can be a cruel game sometimes and they need to have their “A” game every time they step out onto the diamond, especially in tournament play.
I would like to thank my coaching staff for their assistance throughout tryouts, training and tournaments. Firstly Dave Sims for backing up for a second year, Tim Johnston for stepping up into junior coaching for the first time which thoroughly enjoyed and to Michelle Schrapel for being the most thorough EO I have had so far. Not only was Michelle meticulous with her organisation throughout but she also took to baking diners for the boys to save on costs. I would also like to thank Beck McKee for assisting with fundraising bbq’s after trainings to raise money for the team.
I hope that all players enjoyed their experience and took away some valuable lessons from playing at this level. I wish them all the best in the baseball future.
DARREN STEAD Head Coach
67 South Australian Baseball League Inc. JUNIOR LEAGUE - ADELAIDE WAVES
The 2016 Junior League National Championships were held at Diamond Sports, West Beach, from the 22nd - 26th May.
Before the tournament even started we lost one of our big guns in Jack Higginbotham. Jack suffered an elbow injury and could not play but to his credit he stuck with us and helped out where he could during practice and on game day. Due to inclement weather, many of the games were cancelled so we ended up playing only 4 games. We finished with a 1-3 record, our only win being against the top ranked Victorian team, Eastern Athletics.
We were placed in the strongest pool with 3 of the teams being their states top seed – ie – Adelaide Waves, Eastern Athletics, Swan Hills (WA), also in this pool were Manly (NSW).
Day 1 was a double header day for us.
Game 1 vs Swan Hills – lost 8-2 Swan Hills were very aggressive and jumped out to a 6-0 lead after 2 innings which we could not peg back. Unfortunately our pitchers struggled in this game throwing 170 pitches in 7 innings of work!
Game 2 vs Manly – lost 20-8 Once again, their hitters were super aggressive and piled on 7 runs in the 1st inning and then another 2 in the second to be down 9-1 after 2 complete innings. Our pitchers struggled in the atrocious weather conditions during this game (on any other day the game would have been postponed). To our guys credit, we kept chipping away and scoring runs but unfortunately the difference was too great after the first 2 innings.
Game 3 vs Eastern Athletics – won 12-5 After the disappointment of day 1, we made sure the players re-grouped and came out with the right frame of mind for todays game. That they did with a solid team effort to record the win. Our pitchers were outstanding today – Zane Judd, Jacob Scott and Flynn Luders all throwing strikes and getting outs with the minimum pitches. Highlight of the day was a 2 run bomb on the main diamond at Glenelg off the bat of Dylan Strickland. Joe Gluyas and Bailey Short each had multiple hits and RBI also.
Game 4 vs Gold Coast Pirates – lost 7-4 Gold Coast had their ace throwing today, a hard throwing lefty who went 6 1/3 innings. The game was a tight affair and the Gold Coast capitalised on opportunity to score runs where we just could not come up with that clutch hit when we needed. We also made 3 errors in the field today which ended up hurting us on the score board.
The rest of the games were unfortunately washed out. Cronulla Sharks from NSW won the tournament and will go on to represent Australia at the Junior League World Series!
Thanks to assistant coaches – Alex Ditrich & Brenton Short and also E.O Jeff Kevan.
Darren Bromley Head Coach.
68 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SENIOR LEAGUE - ADELAIDE ARMADA
The first ever Australian Senior League National Championships were held in Lismore NSW from the 14th to the 19th of May. Ten teams from around the country were ready to battle it out.
Coaching the inaugural Adelaide Armada team was a real honor and the boys were very excited and pumped up ready to play.
Day 1 had us scheduled with a double header against two quality teams in Hills and the Eastern Phantoms. Our bats were slow on day 1 and we didn’t capitalise on the scoring opportunities that were presented to us. We entered the last inning of both games with the scores tied. Unfortunately, our opposition scored and we did not. We didn’t have much going on against the Hills to lose 2-1.
Against Eastern Phantoms we started much better and had a 3-0 lead after 3 innings but unfortunately they pegged us back and it was 3-3 going into the last. A few things didn’t go our way in the last inning and ended up losing the game 7-3.
Day 2 was a new day and we were programmed to play the Eastern Athletics. Our bats started to fire and we scored 11 runs over the course of game and went on to win 11-8 and secure the first ever win for the Adelaide Armada.
Day 3 saw us drawn to play the local based team, the Central Coast. With a 1-2 record, we knew we had to play well to finish in the top bracket. Both teams scored early but after we regained the lead in the 3rd, we continued to score more runs and eventually win 10-4. Harrison Knuckey pitched his full limit and gave us an awesome effort to secure the win. Mason Clavell had a great game with the bat, going 3/3 with 4RBIs including a massive homerun in the 6th.
Finishing the first round with a 2-2 record gave us a ranking of 4th in the 10 team competition.
Finishing 4th meant we had to play the 5th place team, this happened to be the other Adelaide team, the Titans. We knew this was always going to be a pitching duel with Jack O’Loughlin starting for the Titans and Austin McClure for Armada.
Scoring opportunities slipped from our grasp in the early part of the game. Both teams scored a run in the 5th inning and the game was tied going into the last. The Titans scored 2 runs in the last inning and we didn’t manage to trouble the scorers.
Losing in the last inning 3 times is always hard to swallow. Losing against the Titans meant that they advanced and we were relegated into the lower bracket.
To the boys’ credit, they still came out to play switched on with the goal of two more wins. This was exactly what they did. With an 8 to 5 win over Manly and then an 8 to 4 when over Central Coast.
Armada finished the tournament with a record of four wins and three losses. As the inaugural coach I was very happy and proud of the team’s overall performance. The boys learnt many things and always gave their all. With such a young team they performed very well. All but 2 players are eligible to play again next year. With experience of this year’s tournament and 12 months of baseball I can’t wait to see what next years team can produce.
The tournament was well run and the facilities and weather was awesome.
I would like to thank our assistant coaches Tom Winter and Darren Fidge. You guys were fantastic with the boys leading up to and during the tournament.
A huge thank you to John McClure who put his hand to be the team’s Executive Officer. It’s a tough role and you did an excellent job.
I hope all the players enjoyed their experience and learnt some valuable lessons along the way.
ZAC STOKES Head Coach
69 South Australian Baseball League Inc. SENIOR LEAGUE - ADELAIDE TITANS
This was the first year that the South Australian Baseball League has had a Senior League Charter for the under seventeen age division. The Adelaide Titans represented the Northern Charter which was made up of six clubs (Golden Grove Central Districts, East Torrens, Gawler, Port Adelaide, Henley and Grange, and Kensington).
Due to the coaching situation, the trials ran later than expected and we only had a month to get these young men ready to go for the State Championships. Training twice a week, it was very clear that the men were ready to take on the challenge in the State Tournament.
April 2-3, the North and South Charter went head to head at Diamond Sports, West Beach, to play for the State Championship and the right to advance onto Lismore, where both teams were lucky enough to go away for the National Championships. After three hard fought games, the Adelaide Titans battled and won the State Championship. Even though the outcome went in our favour, those three games were very beneficial for us as they highlighted the areas we needed to improve on.
On Saturday, May 14th, the Titans started their pool play at the National Senior League Championships and would match up against Manly, Brisbane South, Cronulla, and the Southern Mariners. Playing four games in three days was a shock for some players since it was the first time some of them had been away, however, I honestly believe that regardless of the experience each player had, each player was ready to take on the challenge. During pool play, we had good wins against Manly and Cronulla, leaving us with two wins and two losses, and setting up the team for a great position to advance out of pool play and into the playoffs.
In the first round of playoffs, we unfortunately had to go up against our state rival (Adelaide Armada), and if I am going to highlight any game of the tournament, this would be the one. Not just because of the win, but because of the execution. This was the definition of a team win. Good pitching and timely hitting with the execution of stolen bases, a safety squeeze and a sacrifice fly, lead to a 3-1 victory. In the semi-finals, we faced and fell to the Southern Mariners 17-12 and in the Bronze Medal game, we lost to Eastern Phantoms 12-2. A few things that stood out during these two games weren’t the talent of play or effort during these games, it was the mental aspect. It is the mental errors (base running and making forced throws) that we need to correct so that we can stay in the game and win.
In closing, I would like to thank my coaching staff, Russell Hart and Hei Chun Lee for all the work they did over the three months. I cannot thank Kristen Webb enough for getting everything set and the putting in countless hours to make the trip go smoothly and enjoyable for everyone. I would like to thank Zac Stokes, Tom Winters, and Darren Fidge for the combined trainings and extra coaching to help get both teams ready to go.
LANDON HERNANDEZ Head Coach
70 South Australian Baseball League Inc. DIRECT MAIL CENTRE AUSTRALIA
A: 1092 South Road, Edwardstown SA 5039 P: (08) 8277 7700 E: [email protected] W: www.directmailcentre.com.au