Round 6 saw Sunshine and Port Melbourne’s under 13s travel to Werribee, with Sunshine emerging victorious, notching up a commanding 13-6 win. Assistant Coach Taylor Rowe was full of praise for his team’s all-round performance. “We scored a few runs, good pitching, good hitting, good teamwork – I think we went really well today,” said Rowe. Rowe reserved special praise for Ainsley Harris, who he selected as the player of the match. He pinpointed Harris’ versatility as one of her strongest attributes. “She was happy to play anywhere in the field at all times and is an absolute legend. Gives 100% every game,” said Rowe. “She was an absolute beast behind the plate today.” Harris was proud of her performance but also acknowledged some areas for improvement. “I think I did pretty well,” said Harris. “I reckon I maybe could have blocked the ones that bounced a bit more.” For Harris, the highlight of her game on Saturday was her performance in the field. “My favourite part was probably stopping all the high ones that I jumped up for,” said Harris. Coming up this Saturday in the City West under 13s, Port Melbourne have a chance to bounce back against Footscray, while Sunshine takes on Newport.

Last Saturday North Western Titans travelled to Ross Straw Field to take on Melbourne Uni in the D-grade competition. The Titans scored consistently across four innings to run out 20-4 winners. Team manager Daniel Webster praised his team’s ability to hit up and down the lineup while keeping the defence tight. “We scored six in the first dig, seven in the second, and we kept it to nothing until about the third innings,” Webster said. He highlighted the performance of catcher Kyle Hodgetts, who he said blocked well and delivered with the bat. Hodgetts said good communication played an important role. “I think we played pretty well. The key was communication between me and the pitcher and we’re pretty comfortable together, so whatever I call he throws, and he’s confident I’ll back him up,” Hodgetts said. He was also happy with his offensive efforts. “It’s pretty good getting multiple knocks throughout the day. I got three hits for the day today … so it’s pretty good.” Hodgetts said the club was making a conscious effort to play better baseball and are so far undefeated as a result. “We’ve been doing pretty well, pretty consistent. I think as a club we’re doing really well. We want to play higher than where we are, so we’re really pushing to put our abilities up and try and go up in years to come,” he said.

Last Sunday North Balwyn Stingers took a commanding 15-1 win over St Kilda in the women’s competition. The Stingers scored in all but one inning, and didn’t concede a run until the sixth. North Balwyn’s team manager Rod Jackson was particularly impressed with his team’s hitting, highlighting that they hit well up and down the lineup. “As we go through the whole list, it’s relentless. Every one of our team can hit every week, and if somebody’s having a poor day, then there’s going to be others that backup and have a great day,” Jackson said. He also credited his players for their flexibility. “We’ve got a team that most of the players can play any position. So it’s fun, because you can just give them a chance to play where they want to play,” he said. Jackson nominated junior Macy Priamo as player of the game for hitting an inside-the-park home run and making an excellent defensive play from centerfield. “I threw someone out running home from centerfield which is pretty cool,” Priamo said. She also added she learned from the game that different teams take different approaches to the game, and how to play against them.

It was a glorious morning for junior baseball at Mill Park last Saturday as Research Lower Plenty took a 13-0 win over Doncaster in the under-13 Majors. Research coach Jojo Azrein paid credit to his team, who hit particularly well despite missing a number of players. “They went well! We played short, we played with seven, obviously being the long weekend we didn’t have two of our players,” Azrein said. “But those guys who came in, Ben pitched really well, we batted well I think, all around. Beside the last inning we maxed out every inning with our bats, so we were doing well with the bat today,” he said. Azrein nominated pitcher Ben Bird, who threw two innings, as player of the match, but highlighted it was a team win overall. “The whole team played well, I think almost everyone got on base, everyone probably got a run too, so the team played well around,” Azrein said. As is common across the league, there were plenty of family and friends in attendance to support the juniors, including Ben’s dad Adam, who was scorer for Research. He highlighted the importance of supporting clubs through volunteering, to make sure the kids have the best experience possible. “The game would wither without the volunteers, so it’s about giving back to the club, which gives a lot to our kids,” Bird said.

It was a bluebird day at Melbourne Uni’s Ross Straw Field for their A3 opening day clash against Heathmont. The visitors got a 4-run jump in the top of the first, with UMBC’s journeyman starter Gary Mills taking a dig to blow out the cobwebs. Uni replied with 6 runs in the bottom half of the inning, and it was a one-sided affair from there. Mills responded with three shut-out innings, before being relieved by Kyle Nakamura who also allowed zero runs. Meanwhile UMBC piled on the pain, with contributions across the lineup plating 19 unanswered runs to finish with a 19-4 score line. Uni team manager Jonathan Jones was understandably impressed with his team’s first outing for the season. “We had guys hitting up and down the lineup, everybody scoring, knocking people in, and we wound up with a pretty comfortable win,” he said. Jones was particularly impressed with his team’s ability to respond after Heathmont got the jump in the first. “It’s alright to get punched every now and then by the other team. But if you can show them you can punch back quickly and twice as hard, that sets the tone for the rest of the game and that’s precisely what they did today,” Jones said. For player of the round Jones nominated first-baseman Sach Fernando (pictured right), who went 3 for 4 including a bases-clearing triple, and 4 RBIs.

Last Saturday saw Doncaster cap a remarkable return to A-grade with a triumphant 12-0 victory over GMBC in the premier competition’s showpiece. Doncaster opened their account with a single run in the first inning, then added-on in each of the fourth through seventh to tally 12 runs in total, while keeping their formidable opposition scoreless. Dragons pitcher and club coach Daniel McGrath was extremely impressed with his team’s performance, noting their previous loss against GMBC earlier in the finals series. “The team went absolutely awesome. Monty (GMBC) beat us comfortably two weeks ago, we had to go out last week and really battle against North Balwyn who put up a really big challenge towards us. We came back this week and were able to put runs up early and really just settled the team down and went from there,” he said. McGrath also explained his team’s mental approach to taking on the pressure of the occasion. “We really focused on trying to stay within the at-bat and winning each at-bat one at a time, rather than focusing on winning the game. That really helped the guys today in terms of being able to concentrate for the whole 7 innings and going from there,” McGrath said. “It always happens where people feel a little bit more pressure, but that’s where you want to embrace it; this is the way you play, this is why you want to be here. I can’t say enough about the team, they did a really good job grounding themselves and just having good at bats.” In the other match played this week, Essendon capped an impressive season with a 12-8 win over St Kilda in the B-grade grand final. In a post to Instagram the club reflected on their stellar season. “We’re very proud of everyone’s