AUSTRALIAN REGIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS
LISMORE
Baseball NZ sent an U14 team to the Australian Baseball Federation Regional Youth Championships held September 2010.
Central City Baseball had a number of players attend, below is come commentary of the games.
Saturday, 18 September 2010 6:35 p.m.
U14 Update - NZ 10 beat Brisbane South 3"
What a great game! The NZ u14 Team won their opening game 10-3 behind great pitching and defence and aggressive base running and timely hitting. Jimmy Boyce started the game and pitched 3 1/3 innings, 4 hits, 1 walk, 5 k`s and 3 runs (no earned runs). Taylor Simmons came in and pitched 1 2/3 innings and Matthew Boyce came in to save the game in the bottom of the 6th inning.
We got off to a great start in the top of the first inning manufacturing a run. Reede Fowler got on base and scored when Jimmy Boyce hit a double to the gap in left-center. We got another run in The third inning when Brian Kim led off the inning with a single, Brian then stole second base and Sam Harvey got him home with a single. We added another run in the 4th when Jacob Burgin was walked,
Jimmy Witters sacrificed him to second base and he scored on a passed ball.
But them Brisbane South came back in the 4th inning with 3 runs to tie the game at 3-3. The NZ team quickly took control in the top of the 5th inning with 5 runs from only 2 hits and 4 walks and we scored another 2 runs in the 6th to put the game away.
It was a great team effort but the players who really stood out were Jimmy Boyce for getting us off to a good start with his pitching, Reede Fowler with great play at shortstop and scoring 3 runs (my MVP), Brian Kim for his play at second base, Sam Harvey with two nice hits and a great catch in center field, Zac Goldschmidt for great catching (he was a brick wall behind the plate) and Matthew Boyce for nice pitching to close out the game.
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Sunday, 19 September 2010 2:07 a.m.
Far North Coast 10 - NZ 9
Another very close game with the NZ u 14 team coming out on the wrong side this time. We had multiple chances to win the game but just could not put the Far North Coast (FNC) team away. Mind you - this was an amazing night for the FNC team. Then had just come back from 13-2 down to beat Brisbane North 14-13 - scoring 8 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to win.
Our starting pitcher was Jordan Hall who was really throwing hard but the FNC worked his pitching count and had some timely hits to take a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the second inning. Then our bats came to life and with two down and bases loaded Jimmy Boyce got a hit to the gap and 3 runs came in. We scored 4 runs in total and took a 4-3 lead after 2 innings. And this is how the game continued. FNC came back in the 4th inning with 3 runs and we replied in the bottom of the inning with 3 of our own with Sam Harvey, Reede Fowler and Matthew Freeman all getting big hits - so after 4 innings we lead 8-6. Matthew Freeman was one of the players of the game going 3-4 with 2 doubles and a single. Reede Fowler also had another good game and got on base every at bat and scored 2 runs. Zac Goldschmidt was our catcher again for the whole game and had 2 hits and scored 2 runs and caught very well again for a second game in a row.
During the game there were a lot of close calls which ALL seemed to go against us - but the team kept battling on. We took our 8-6 lead into the 6th inning but then FNC came back with 3 runs to take a 9-8 lead.
Anyway, we came back in the bottom of the 6th with a run of our own when Matthew Freeman hit his second double of the day to the gap and Sam Hayes scored. So tied 9-9 we went into extra innings. In the 7th inning Sam Harvey and Brian Kim pitched a perfect inning to give us a chance to finish the game. We then loaded the bases with no outs but could just not score (although we had a close play at home plate that was called out - a very contentious call at best). Then they came up with a run in the 8th inning and we went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
A long and disappointing end to the day (the game finished at about 11pm) but I am sure that the players and coaches leaned a lot. We also had to use 8 pitchers (Jordan Hall, Jacob Burgin, Ben Thompson, Reede Fowler, Matthew Thomas, Sam Harvey, Brian Kim and Matthew Boyce) so we will need to call on all our resources tomorrow to get through to the semi-finals on Monday.
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Monday, 20 September 2010 12:25 a.m.
NZ u14 team into Semi-Finals tomorrow at 10am vs Brisbane Metro
What a day of baseball. The NZ team got to the field at about 11am - had some lunch and then prepared for an important game against Brisbane North. We were in 3rd place in the group with 1 win and 1 loss. While all teams automatically qualified for the QFs we wanted to win all the games we played. Jacob Burgin had pitched really well on Saturday night against FNC so the coaches selected him to start this game. And what a game he pitched. In showery conditions he did not let the Brisbane North batters get into the game. He could have pitched a complete game but the coaches took him out after 3 1/3 innings, 1 hit, 4 k`s, and no runs.
Sam Hayes finished off the game with 2 strike outs for a 22-0 win (sorry I gave us an extra run earlier). On the batting side of the game our top 3 batters (Sam Harvey, Reede Fowler and Jimmy Boyce) did not get out and scored in every inning - yes 12 runs scored for 3 players. But for us to score all these runs someone has to hit them in and Jordan Hall did the job here with 2 inside the park homeruns!! What a performance!! The bottom of the line-up also did well with Josh Goodwin, Jacob Burgin, Sean Akroyd and Dylan Irwin all getting RBIs and scoring runs. Overall a great team performance. With this result we finished in 1st place in our group on run difference with Brisbane South in second place, FNC (who beat us last night) in 3rd place and Brisbane North in last place.
After the game we thought we only had a 2 hour break with our QF game scheduled for 4:30pm against North Queensland (the 4th placed team in the other group). But just before game time the rain really came down so the game was delayed. We eventually started at 5:30pm but as the game progressed so did the rain. The game on field 2 (we were playing on field 1) was cancelled as the mound was not in good condition.
Anyway, Taylor Simmons was our starting pitcher and did a great job in very poor conditions. He pitched 3 innings, 0 hits, 1 K, 3 walks and 2 runs. On the batting side Sam Harvey kept his great hitting going with Matthew Boyce who hit a nice triple, Jordan Hall with 2 hits, Matthew Freeman with a homerun and Jaz Faunt with two very nice hits (and 2 runs scored - on the second one she had to slide into home and got covered in mud). But leading 13-2 in the 3rd inning it was announced that all QF were cancelled and that the top two teams in each group would go into the SFs to be played at 10am tomorrow. We (as the top seed) play the second place team from the other group - Brisbane Metro and Brisbane South against Gold Coast in the other SF. Brisbane Metro is a very good team so it will be a tough game.
As for the players of the day - Jacob Burgin who really pitched us into first place and into the SF tomorrow, Sam Harvey got on base 7 times from 7 at bats and scored 7 runs, Jordan Hall with two Homeruns, and Taylor Simmons for his pitching in the QF game (even though it was cancelled) as he came out in the pouring rain to help us to a 9-0 lead.
We are all looking forward to an exciting game tomorrow!!!
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