After an almost four month delay, three age divisions of Greater Western Baseball Association Warriors will finally get to compete in the Baseball NSW State Championships, starting with Junior League at Aquatic Reserve this weekend.
Like most things in life, the original four-day tournaments that were scheduled for April had to be postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions, and will now be played over two sets of weekends for the aspiring youth baseballers aged between 9 and 14.
“These kids train hard so it’s great to be able to get these tournaments played,” said Association President, Michael Bryan, “the prospect back in March that it would be completely cancelled was disheartening, so a big thanks to Baseball NSW and the Junior Associations who persisted even with ”.
“We had over 100 players trial for the Summer Development squads as part of the process back in December, and with our next season starting in September this was really the last opportunity available, so there’s a fair amount of relief from parents and committees alike.”
Having altered the tournament away from four consecutive days, as well as the cancellation of the international and Australian Championships has meant some changes to original entries, with some regional teams opting out ahead of upcoming Country Championships and some metropolitan teams withdrawing due to player availability.
“For sure this is far from an ideal situation, and we’ve all got players involved in shortened Winter sports that have either had to withdraw or work both the best they can,” said Bryan, “but for the most part we are happy to just get on the diamond and finish off these programs.”
Leading the return to tournament play on 1-2nd and 8-9th August is the Junior League Division (13-14 year olds) at Aquatic Reserve, with Greater Western Baseball Association hosting the Intermediate (12-13s), Little League Majors (11-12s) and League Age 10-11 tournaments at Peter Van Hasselt Reserve on 15-16th and 22-23rd August, whilst Baseball NSW hosts the Senior League Division (15-16s) at Blacktown International Sports Park.
“The sport has done a lot of work to best protect players, officials and spectators in the current COVID climate,” said Bryan, “there are a some additional responsibilities for teams, and some of it means things may not be as ideal as we would like, but I’m confident every single player is excited to be back out there playing some quality baseball”.
The Junior League Warriors have three games this weekend, with their opener against Manly at 1:30pm today, a 9am and 11:30am double header tomorrow against Macarthur and Illawarra before being reseeded for next weekend, whilst the Little League and League Age 10-11 Warriors will wait until 15th August to get underway.
“A sincere thank you to everyone that was able to stick with the programs until now, and we wish all of our Warriors a great time over the next four weeks, and encourage them to go out and try their best, but most of all have fun.”