Taylor McEvoy

Waverley Baseball Club's Taylor McEvoy was named the 2005 recipient of the the Ernie Jones Baseball Scholarship. The scholarship was set up to provide an under-14 state representative player advance their baseball career. The fund was initiated in 2003 by the Springvale Baseball Club in partnership with Baseball Victoria.

The scholarship winner will be a player from the under-14 state team who has an excellent on-field and off-field record and is assessed as being capable of developing into a leading player in the future of baseball.  Consideration was given to all-round abilities which include achievements at school, wider interest in the community, leadership, attitude and in some part a player requiring financial assistance.

Taylor, a 13-year old pitcher and shortstop, was described as leading by example, setting the bar for others to follow, and assisting with other players in developing their skills. 

'Paicey' with President Ross Neilson at Presentation

With 'Paicey' now on 701 games and Ross about 520, there was a combined 1200-plus games for the Waverley Baseball Club between the two of them.

Congratulations Geoff... does anyone want to bet that he won't make it past 800!?

Here are two of our star U14's for this season 
TAYLOR McEVOY (left) and JOSHUA HENDRICKS (right) 
proudly wearing the Australian colours on the eve of the prestigious CAL RIPKEN BASEBALL SERIES... good luck lads!

James Beresford

Few would argue with the award winners for 2003/04 who each deserved their individual honours following another tremendous season of Waverley baseball.

Our sincere thanks and congratulations to the following award winners:

Club Champion

Hayden Dingle

Best Team Man

Seconds              Brett Flemming

Thirds                Jason Cousins

Fourths               Thomas Bradbury

Best Finals Player

Firsts                 Sam Mather

Seconds             Justin Kirsch

Thirds                Greg Johnston

Fourths               Aaron Bridges

Best Clubman

Julie & Stephen Wright

Coach’s Award

Seconds              Kirby McConnon

Thirds                 Andrew Belousoff

Fourths               Brett Morris

Mighty Effort Award

Bede Karlsen

Tony Page

HITTING AWARD

For the second year in a row a Wildcat won the Hitting Award.

Last year Jarrod Hodges won, and this year, with a very impressive .448 Average, Sammy Mather was the winner. Without being unkind, there were NO points awarded for sartorial elegance. Hayden Dingle was sixth, just behind Matty Sheldon- Collins. Of considerable interest to Waverley/ Melbourne Reds fans, five of the top ten were on the Reds roster.

In addition the top two in the second Division awards were also ex Reds, Matt Gourlay, and Rob Hogan, both of whom PITCHED for the Reds.

PITCHERS AWARD

David McWatters was second to Casey Jones, of Essendon, in the pitchers award. Andrew Fennell was seventh.

MVP Club Awards

Present and former Wildcats, who gained most votes from umpires during the season, for their clubs, were:

·       Waverley       David McWatters

·       Malvern         Ross McLean

·       Fitzroy           Mathew Ellis   and

·       Doncaster      Lachlan Craven  (Winner Div 3 MVP)

Special congratulations from the Waverley Baseball Club to:

·       The Blackburn Baseball Club on winning the Club Championship, and First Division premiership.

·       David White of Blackburn, the MVP player in First Division

Diamond 4 - Mason Field:
"Who are those two familiar looking guys hanging around with our our U12 Wildcats coach ARTHUR PAPANICOLAOU?"
None other than 'Flintoff & Dunn' HALL-OF-FAMERS: PHIL DALE &
MATTHEW SHELDON-COLLINS

That's Arthur at right against the fence in his red Wildcats uniform... and for those who may not know them, those other two guys are LEGENDS of the Waverley Baseball Club, the Waverley Reds in the ABL and Australian baseball in general: MATTHEW SHELDON-COLLINS (foreground umpiring) and PHIL DALE (black jacket talking with Arthur). How fortunate we are to have men of this stature returning to the club as the "new generation" of Sheldon-Collins' and Dale's start their junior careers just as their famous fathers did!

These days Phil Dale, one of the finest pitchers Australia has ever produced, is an Assistant coach for the Australian Senior AROOS team and the Asian Region scout for the Atlanta Braves. 'Big Phil' has given a lot of his time specialist coaching our junior representative teams around the WBC in recent years.

Matthew 'Matty' Sheldon-Collins was one of the finest short stops you will ever see and a clutch hitter in any situation. 'Matty' is one of Waverley's favourite sons, but what's that helmet he's wearing?... yep, it has an Upwey tiger not visible in this picture. You may know that Matthew is also the current head-coach of the successful Upwey Ferntree-Gully Senior club and he is also the current head of the Victorian Institute of Sport Baseball Program. This aside, 'Matty' remains very much a favourite at Waverley, although his father (WBC Life Member Keith) assures us that he actually started his career at North Balwyn at about 7yo!

Waverley's Under 16 Victorians (Left to right):
Ryan Fisher, Kirby McConnon & James Beresford

In dominant fashion, our 'AAA' (U18's), U16's and U14's teams each reasserted Victoria's lofty standing in Australian baseball.

As previously reported, WAVERLEY BASEBALL CLUB (as usual) was well represented in these fine teams by some of our most talented young players as follows:

U18's: Donavon Hendricks, Steven Hood and Adam Kim
U16's: James Beresford, Ryan Fisher and Kirby McConnon
U14's: Joshua Collis, Matthew Gerraty, Taylor McEvoy, Andrew Van Iersel and Daniel Zucchet.