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LITTLE LEAGUE AT WAVERLEY |
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LITTLE LEAGUE PAGE |
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WAVERLEY LITTLE LEAGUE 2010 |
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To DOWNLOAD a copy of our JUNIOR
INFORMATION KIT,
just
click here. |
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FOLLOW WAVERLEY
LITTLE LEAGUE AT NATIONALS We wish the team a successful and enjoyable championship.
GO WILDCATS! |
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WAVERLEY WILDCATS
WIN THIRD STRAIGHT |
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Waverley Little League 2010
Well where do I start!
The 2010 Little League team have taken out the Victorian Little League championships last weekend at Upwey Baseball Club.
Day 1. We were looking forward to the challenge at meeting what I thought was going to be the competition after playing 4 lead up practice matches prior to the tournament. We started with 1 run in the 1st then 4 more in the 4th and keeping them scoreless till the 5th after giving up 3 runs to a home run over left field, but we were still in control with good defence, discipline hitting and good pitch selection and out hitting them 7 hits to 4. We now get to enjoy a bye and then come back Saturday to take on last years runners up the Melbourne West Giants who by Saturday morning they had lost their first 2 games.
Day 2. They got a bit of a start on us with 3 runs in the first due to a single and 3 doubles to give us something to chase. Well this put a fire in the belly of the boys who took the bull by the horns and scored 2 in the 1st, 4 in the second, 5 in the 3rd and 6 in the 4th to take our second victory 17 - 6. Nash woods & Josh Pyke did a great job on the hill with only giving up 6 runs between them backed up with good team hitting.
Day 2. We started with Lachlan Burke on the hill for this game for 3 innings, Jacob Evans for 1, Andrew Kane & Oliver Dunn for 2 each to only concede 6 runs in six innings from 8 hits where we had 15 hits for 13 runs. We are coming together now and starting to look like a team fit for the championship game which at this stage it will be against South East Mariners who had just beaten North East Sluggers to put them out of the running.
Day 3. Both teams start with 3 wins no losses, we have the luxury of knowing that we have made the final and the result from this game decides who would be the home team for the final. We started very well with the first 2 batters from South East being put out before the heavens opened up and a rain delay was put into place for 30 minutes, questions needed to be asked at this stage as to the game plan because due to the weather this could have been the final. We checked the radar map and with the radar clear for the rest of the day we would stick to our original game plan. I would say we got rid of our nerves and fumbles in this game going down to them 11 run to 3. We had a brief chat as a team after the game and put this one behind us.
Day 3
Championship Final. We started this game feeling really good about our chances at taking this title again, the boys had a look about them that only champions have. Jye Deeble started on the hill and from the get go he was in control with good command of his fastball keeping it down and with figures for the game of 6 innings, 4 Ks, 2 BB, 85 pitches 60 strikes. He was backed up by a great display of team batting from all 14 guy's who knew that the part that they each played was an integral and very important part to the success of this team. We held them to 1 run for the entire game whilst scoring 6 from 10 hits with an excellent display of fielding by all involved. I would like to add that each and every member of this team played a very important and integral part in this win. GO WILDCATS. Now the work starts from here till the Nationals. regards, Richard, Rod, Mark, Karen & Sandra. I
must add a special mention for the support for our team from
the Waverley Baseball Club & previous Waverley Little League
players & parents, your support does not go unnoticed. |
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Waverley Little League Team 2010 We take great pleasure in announcing this years Little League team
LachLan Burke;
Ryan Dean;
Jye Deeble;
Oliver Dunn;
Jacob Evans;
Callum Grant;
Bradley Homfray;
Brayden James;
Andrew Kane;
Sam Le Min;
Joshua Puyk;
Christopher Stefancik;
Head Coach: Richard
Mason;
Assistant Coach: Rod Paton;
Assistant Coach: Mark Flintoff If
you have any questions, please contact Karen Mason via |
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Waverley Little League Asia
Pacific 2009 On July 2 2009, 14 Little League Baseballers, 3 Coaches and an EO headed off to Taipei to represent Australia at the Asia Pacific Little League Championships, all proudly from the Waverley Baseball club. 17 parents joined us on our trip that would be very memorable for all who travelled to Taipei. We arrived around 8pm in Taipei, and gladly made it thru Customs and past the thermo machine, with the Swine Flu in the head lines and having a coach who wasn’t 100% and a couple of kids who had shocking colds, we were glad to get out and find our transport. We were greeted by Andre, our 19 year old Translator who is currently studying English at university. We were taken by bus to our Hotel. My first impression of this Hotel is that it looked way too “posh” for this travelling bunch. Footy in the hallways was obviously a No No. We trained the next day on a local baseball ground that looked like it needed some TLC. These grounds had 3 diamonds and an infield all with lights, in what looked like a run down area near to our Hotel. Our kids looked very jaded and some struggled in the heat. We managed to get to a local baseball shopping for some quality shopping and for those of us who went into the storage area at the back of the shop, an instant weight loss program. The shops air conditioning consisted of a fan and the owners handed out bottles of water to their shoppers. We trained on Saturday at Shing-Sheng (Airport Reserve) one of the grounds the tournament will played on. It was obviously on a flight path to an airport because we had several low flying planes that caused some people to duck as they went by. The kids looked much better in this training but were still struggling with the heat. More detailed game reports are available on the BV or ABF websites. Sunday 5th July Our Opening game was played after the opening ceremony at Youth Park. A fantastic baseball ground in the middle of a park. It was surrounded by walking tracks, trees and squirrels! Our players and coaches joined in the opening ceremony and stood in the heat while the officials gave speeches in Chinese and English. We were unluckily to draw Chinese Taipei for our 1st game, who we expected to be tough. This was in front of around 3000 people, most barracking for Taipei. While the 10 – nil loss wasn’t what we had wanted, by the end of the week, it was the norm for the teams playing the host nation. They hit 10 or more runs in the 6 games they played and only Korea managed to get to the regulation 6 innings. Monday 6th Richard had finally succumbed to his illness and left Michael and Grant in charge. We played Singapore who were mainly Americans and this was our game of the week. We lead early and then Singapore tied in the 3rd. We scored the go ahead run in the bottom of the 5th and held Singapore out to win the game 2 – 1 in a high standard pitching and fielding game. We all decided that when we got back to the hotel we would all go and give the good news to the coach, I think this must have worked, because he was ready for Tuesday. Bring on the Kiwi’s. Tuesday 7th Richard is back on deck and we played the Kiwis hoping to go back to back. This game was played on the main diamond at Youth Park and was televised live on TV. We scored in the first innings and New Zealand tied it up in their bat in the 2nd. We again scored in the 2nd to go 1 run up. We held the kiwis scoreless in the next 3 innings and managed to score another 4 runs. The Kiwis came out in the 6th innings and gave us a scare with 2 out, managed to score 1 run and load the bases up before we got the last out. We won 6-2. The players, coaches and spectators travelled to Taipei by train and did some sight seeing . They took in “Taipei 101”. The tallest building in the world with the worlds fastest elevator that travel the 508mtrs in just on 30 seconds. A great experience for all. Wednesday 8th We were back on the Shing-Sheng (Airport Reserve) ground, even as the second ground had an electronic scoreboard! We played the strong Korean team and we gave them a huge shock when we scored 2 runs in the opening innings. After 2 innings the game was tied 2 all and we thought we were in with a chance. I think we woke a sleeping giant and they then scored 12 runs on 10 hits. They would have doubled our team in the weight department. We were the only team so far to score off Korea, so we did really well. Thursday 9th We played our last game against Thailand at the main park, again live on TV. Our game was played before the Taipei/Korean game to decide who would play in the Final. Our parents ended up surrounded by about 2000 spectators on our side on the diamond. Space became an issue but we did manage to get the crowd cheering for the Aussies. Thailand were a much better team than most people would think and they won the game 5-2 While this was disappointing to loose a game we hoped to win, the experience of wearing the Australian Uniform and playing in front of a crowd of over 4000 people and have half of them cheering for us was an amazing experience. Well done boys, you did yourselves, your families, your club & your Country proud. We played in extreme heat, under trying conditions and against come very good opposition and held our heads up. I’m sure this bunch of players and coaches have learnt a lot and will benefit from the international experience. We thank Grant Weir for his fantastic efforts prior to our departure with all the running around with organising & delivering uniforms and equipment at the 11th hour also the ABF for funding our trip so that our 11, 12 & 13 year olds could have the opportunity to wear the Australian uniform with pride and be fantastic ambassadors of Australia. The Final. Chinese Taipei beat Korea 10 to 3 and then beat Guam 10 nil to win their way to the Little League World Series. We will watch with interest to see how good this team is.
The Waverley Little League Executive Team. As Coach of the 2009 Waverley Little League team, it was a great honour to have had the support from three very hard working people of which without them the achievements that we had would not have been possible. I would like to make a special mention on the tireless effort of my EO in Sue who put a gigantic amount of work in the given time frame between tournaments, thanks once again. I must go on record in thanking the vast amount of people that also worked very hard on helping us achieve our goals, including parents and friends, Waverley Baseball Club for their use of their facilities for the extra training nights that had to take place. Thanks to Jon Deeble for his elite level of training with the team, Matthew Sheldon-Collins for his efforts to allow the Monash University for the use of their indoor high performance centre for the allocated time slots that were needed and squeezed in at late notice, Thank you to Grant Karlsen for giving up his time to offer the extra catcher training that was gratefully received by both catchers & coaches also a special mention for the help from Ian & Liam Geduld and Daniel page (well done lefty) But most of all this is about the 14 kids that made this commitment back in November to push themselves above and beyond their wildest expectations, to not only become State & National Champions but players to represent their country at the highest level for their age group. And finally a big thank you to my assistants in Michael Geduld & Grant Poke , it was a pleasure to have you guy’s there when I needed you with all the extra training nights and the extra work loads in Taiwan due to my health. Thanks once again.
Richard Sod Mason |
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To read tournament results and more from the Baseball Victoria web site, click here. A message from Coach Mason, As the winter season draws nearer, spare a thought for 14 very talented Little Leaguers that last weekend went into the State Little League Tournament at Waverley's Napier Park as defending champions. The forecast for the tournament, was not favourable to baseball, cold wet and windy. We took it all in our stride as we presented ourselves for the first game on Saturday afternoon, after having a bye in the first round.
The first game was against a formidable opposition
in Melbourne West Giants - who had a few players living up to the Giants
part of their name. We set about executing the plan that had been
worked out by the Executive Staff (Brains Trust), with pitching and
field placing a big part of the overall plan. Trenton started
proceedings for us with his 45 pitch limit for the day and only allowed
2 hits in the 4 innings, with 1 walk, 2 K's, and two runs - which was
courtesy of a monster drive over the right field fence. We stuck to our
guns with the bats, scoring 1 run in the 3rd and leaving bases loaded.
We scored another in the fourth, again leaving bases loaded and then 4
more in the fifth. Great hitting from Jordan to go 4 from 4 (1 triple &
3 singles); 2 singles to Andrew Hayes, a double to Davis, and singles to
Jye, Trenton, & Rhys.
Sunday - Our first game for the day was against
North East Sluggers who at this stage were 1 win & 1 loss. Starting on
the hill for us would be Corey who also was only going to pitch a max of
45. He kept he Sluggers to 2 hits in 2 1/3 innings, for nil score.
Replacing Corey on the mound was Rhys for his first outing. With a
ball/strike ratio of 2 to 15 - a fantastic effort, only giving up the 1
run. Defensively we were good, only conceding the 1 run for the game
and producing 1 error. Following Rhys on the mound would be Davis and
the Andrew Kane to finish off the game, shutting down any chance the
Sluggers had. We collected 13 hits - one of which was a home run to Sam
- his first ever, plus a triple by Trenton .
The afternoon game was billed by many as the game of
the tournament, and South East came at us like there was no tomorrow.
They attacked us with the bat and were just as strong defensively, they
racked up 12 hits to our 3 and scoring at ease. Our boys did not drop
their heads at any stage and just kept chipping away but to no avail.
We finished with four runs to their eleven. They played their big lefty
pitcher towards the end of the game, but we only got to see him for 18
pitches for his part in the game. This game was played with rain delays
and in miserable conditions for everyone including the scorers. So at
the end of Sunday games, South East looked the goods and they had that
spring in their step, also knowing that they had their big guns to go
all the way when needed. Even their coaching staff stayed at the club
for a while after the game. At that point The brains trust for the
Wildcats went to work on Monday's games and what was needed to unfold
for us to make the championship game.
Monday - "Game on" we said when we took the field
against Eastern Kangaroos. We gave the ball to Jye and said "Have a day
out there." Well he sure did - he pitched a complete game - 6 innings
for 68 pitches, for no runs. He only gave up three hits for the entire
game with a ball/strike count of 21 to 47. To compliment this, we had
some good strong fielding and batting. We got 7 hits for 7 runs
including a home run to Andrew Hayes that cleared the centre field fence
by 30-40 feet. Also picking up hits was the ever reliable Jordan with a
double. A double also to Josh and Luke got two doubles. We then had Sam
getting two singles.
Lunch time was quickly upon us yet again and the
trusty Subway hit the spot just right, as we saw what was unfolding on
Diamond 3 between Melbourne West Giants and South East. Our 3 members
of the brains trust (Michael had some very important work commitments to
attend to, but he was kept in the loop) did some careful calculating as
to what could happen, and eventually did happen in this game. South
East who looked like being the tournament favourites loosing to the
Giants 10 runs to 14 - this put them into the third place playoffs. As
all three teams, Waverley, Melbourne West Giants and South East all had
a 3 wins 1 loss record the tournament director gave us the news that
South East had conceded the most runs out of the three teams - leaving
Waverley to play Melbourne West Giants in the final.
So as history will now show, we were the home team
for the final conceding the least amount of runs of the 3 teams at head
to head and given our chance to play in the championship game and defend
our title. The kids did that with the guts and determination that is a
Waverley Wildcat player. Sam Hunter was given the task to shut down the
Giants, and that he did with a very calm but awesome display of
pitching for such a young man. He pitched a complete game - 6 innings
for 77 pitches - 57 of which were strikes. We could not have dreamed of
a better outing on the hill, only giving up 4 hits but not conceding any
runs. Our very talented fielding left us breathless to say the least,
and I must say we still had more guns to go on the hill if needed.
We are the Victorian State Little League Champions
for the second time from as many tournaments - something we are all very
proud to have achieved. This does not happen without a lot of planning,
training and commitment from all the people concerned. We are the
Waverley Junior Nation and very proud of that. I was delighted with the
way that everybody turned up to support this team of very dedicated and
very talented youngsters who executed stage 1 of our plan.
I would like to ask you all to frequent the Waverley
website often for details about up and coming fundraisers that will
assist our team make the journey to Queensland for the quest to become
the Australian champions. If anyone is able to assist with
fundraising/sponsorship/donations, please contact Richard (SOD) Mason
via email
masons4@bigpond.net.au
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank
all the ground staff who presented the playing fields to tournament
standard game after game, and also to the tireless efforts from the
canteen staff for keeping up with the demands of the hungry players and
spectators for whole tournament. Both of these tasks were achieved with
the professional standard we have come to expect at Waverley.
Regards
Richard 'SOD' Mason
Head Coach
Waverley Wildcats Little League.
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OUR WBC LITTLE LEAGUE TEAM FOR 2009
The 2009
Little League Tournament will be played 4-6 April, Played by an estimated 80
million youngsters throughout the world each year, Little League has taken
Australian baseball by storm and is a very attractive alternative for
parents looking to get their children involved in a team activity that
nurtures a strong set of values and offers kids the chance to have fun in a
safe and ordered sporting environment. To read more, click this link:
Little League History - from 2008 News - 16 JULY 2008 - NEWSPAPER REPORT!To see how the team's efforts were reported in the WAVERLEY LEADER, click here. News - 30 JUNE 2008 - RECAP FROM THE COACH!For the latest and final 2008 LITTLE LEAGUE News Update, click here.
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