The Redlands Rave Compiled by Dorry Beutel 2017 - Issue 2 12 November, 2017 Junior League Bandits Games Reports Despite being tw o players dow n, our Junior League Bandits team recorded a narrow 9-8 w in over Pine Hills Lightning on Saturday 14th October. Ayden Champneys led the pitching striking out four batters and allow ing only five safe hits in his three innings pitched. Rays safe hits w ere by David Riley and Nathan Murray (Little League) w ho played up from Little League Rays to fill one of the positions in the Junior League Team. In the game against West Bulldogs on 28th October, Kai Poon w as impressive as starting pitcher, achieving six strikeouts and allow ing only three safe hits over his four innings on the mound. Gabe Kushi pitched the last inning w ith tw o strikeouts and allow ed only one hit from six batters. Rays batting against Bulldogs produced singles from Jamie Doran, Ayden Champneys, Ryan Baker and Hayden Row e, doubles from Kai Poon and Josh Wilson, a triple from Gabe Kushi and an infield home run w ith loaded bases from David Riley. Ayden Champneys, Jamie Croon and Gabe Kushi assisted in a double play and Kayne Saverin and David Riley took the only catches of the game. These phots of the Rays Junior League Bandits are curtesy of Sharon Pow- ell, Mum of Deegan Powell in the Senior League Rays Bandits team. Thanks for taking them and allowing me to use them in the newsletter. Editor INSIDE THIS ISSUE • Junior League Bandits Win • Did You Know?? • Meet 2 of Our Original Club Members • Editors Note • Meet Our Sub-Committee Part 1 • Our Sponsors • A Blast From the Past • From the Redland City Bulletin Online Issue 2 Page Meet Two of Our Original Club Members IT / Website Manager - Stephen Schneider Email: [email protected] - Ph: 0411 517 131 Stephen started playing baseball at the Hendra All-Stars Club w hen he w as six years old but his first year at Redlands w as in the 1989/90 season as a player in the U10’s Navajo team w hen the club w as called Southside Indians and w as affiliated w ith the current Indians Baseball Club. As a junior player, Stephen pitched and played 1st base and now , as a Senior, his primary positions have been centre field and pitcher. After playing for most of his junior career at Redlands, Stephen ventured to Windsor Royals for a season, and Carina Redsox for tw o seasons, before returning to Redlands. He is currently plays in the Division 3 Rays 2 team, as w ell as in the Masters team. Stephen represented Brisbane South throughout his junior career and in his final year of junior baseball, he played for Brisbane Metro. He w as a member of the Queensland team in 1995 and had three trips to the United States w ith Queensland Taipans. Stephen is our IT & Website Manager and looks after our w eb and Facebook pages and anything else to do w ith information technology. He is currently in his final semester at Bond University w here he is completing a degree in Sports Management. He is also a member of the GBL (Greater Brisbane League) Committee. Athol (Red) Cunningham Red started playing t-ball for Redlands in the 1991/92 season in the U8’s team w hen the club w as called the Southside Indians Baseball Club and he has played for Redlands in every summer season since then. During the w inter seasons, he played for other clubs including Mudgeeraba and Runaw ay Bay. He has also played in a number of representative teams including for Brisbane South, Metropolitan East Schoolboys, Queensland School- boys and the Australian Expos in w hich he participated in 3 tours playing against teams from Chicago, California, San Diego, San Francisco. While a Junior player, Red’s preferred positions w ere middle infield and relief pitcher but he played all positions at some time through his junior years and as a senior he has mainly played 2nd base, 3rd base, relief pitcher and catcher. He is also currently playing in the Division 3 Rays 2 team. When asked about his memories of early Redlands Baseball Club, Red commented “I have seen many changes with the club over the years. We have gone from a little shipping container on the hill as a canteen to the clubhouse it is today. The bottom field used to have 2 full diamonds and the field was big enough to have four tee ball games or 2 junior games going at once. As the fields were built over a dump, every time it rained, the underlying rocks and stones would be brought up all over the fields. This meant before any team could train we had to try and fill the plastic baseball bucket with rocks and after training we would have to rake the field and pick up more rocks even though another team was training after us. This continued for about five seasons”. Issue 2 Page 2 Meet Our SubMeet Sub-Sub---CommitteeCommittee Members Uniform Co-ordinator - Darryn Smallwood Email: [email protected] Darryn first became involved w ith Redlands Rays in 2014 w hen his son, Blake started playing T-Ball. During that season, he volunteered to help w ith grounds maintenance and, since then, has w orked w ith the grounds crew whenever he has the time. Darryn has 5 children and 2 jobs and is also uniform coordinator for his daughter’s netball team and assistant coach for Blake’s soccer team. He likes to help out w here he can as he knows that sporting clubs are only as strong as the people in it. This season Darryn has signed up for the role of club uniform co- ordinator and umpire for Blake’s Little League Bandits team. He is also continuing to w ork w ith the grounds crew to keep our fields looking as spectacular as they are. When asked, he commented “I like to help out where I can as I know that sporting clubs don’t run without help and are only as strong as the people in it”. Media Co-ordinator - Dorry Beutel Email: [email protected] Ph: 0408 730 423 I first became a baseball supporter w ith Redlands Baseball Club in 2007 w hen my elder grandson, Brett Riley, started playing T-Ball. Although I didn’t attend every game in the beginning, I w as hooked after watching the semi-finals of 2010 school boys softball state titles w here Brett’s team w as playing and sinc e then, w hen possible, I have attended every club baseball game. Those state titles w ere also responsible for my interest in scoring and for my ow n curiosity, I started by just marking runs and outs. How ever, as Brett w as a pitcher, before I knew it, I w as also noting pitch counts. I w as also an avid photographer and took thousands of action photos during Brett’s early playing years. In 2012, my younger grandson, David, also started playing and at his first club game, his coach handed me the score book. My reaction w as rather comical as I hadn’t seen a “proper” scorebook before. How ever, I quickly learned w hat to do and have been scoring for whatever team David has been in since then. I have even achieved Level 1 status w ith my Level 2 exam to come before the end of this season. Unfortunately, taking on the scoring role put an end to my action photography and my album is seriously lacking David's early action photos. At this year’s AGM, I volunteered to take on the Media Co-ordinator role and my focus is to get our club out there in the community media through the Redland City Bulletin online and in new spaper form as w ell as through our club’s Facebook page. I encourage everyone to introduce themselves to other members, get to know your fellow supporters and eventually you w ill get to make some great friends. Issue 2 Page 3 A Blast From the Past Our blast from the past this week takes us back to April 2012 when our club hosted that year’s Little League State Titles where eight regional teams from the greater Brisbane area, Gold Coast, North Queensland and Lismore competed for the right to contest the Australian Little League Championships at Tallebudgera on the Gold Coast. The Brisbane South team included ten Redlands Rays Little Leaguers and they finished the round robin competition undefeated. This ensured that Souths had home team advantage in the most exciting Little League grand final against Brisbane North that even the BQ officials had seen for a long time. The game was drawn at 5-5 through the 10th inning until Brisbane North brought 6 runners home in the top of the 11th. Unfortunately one of those runners knocked Souths’ catcher, Nick Johnstone, over at home plate ending with Nick being taken off to hospital for observation. The game was declared a win for Brisbane North even though the inning wasn’t completed. After some intense discussion between the Brisbane South Manager, David Badke, and the BQ offi- cials, it was decided that both teams would be allowed to participate in the National Champion- ships along with Far North Coast as the Queensland Country entry, and Gold Coast as the host team.