Eagles stitch up Junior Club Championship

With 1 round remaining in the Junior Baseball Minor Round, I am delighted to report that West Torrens Junior teams will win the Junior Club of the Year for the fourth consecutive year. This is a remarkable tribute to the work done with your sons and daughters by an experienced and dedicated band of teaching coaches whose focus is on developing every player to his best ability. It is easy to suggest that we have the best players, and we do, but other clubs also have good players and the difference between the Eagles programme and others is this teaching and insistence of doing the basics well. Hence, when our teams are challenged, most often they can respond with the drills that they have been taught.

For the record, the Under 18’s coached by Brett Ettridge are in first place, two games clear on top. The Rick Mead mentored Under 16’s are in first place three games clear, the David Green Machine Under 14/1’s are first, two games clear and the Jamie Boydon/Tim Mead lead Little League Majors are first, one game clear. Whilst their ladder positions don’t count toward the Championship, we are also extremely proud of the Rob Dineen Machine Under 14/2’s, currently sitting fourth and our Little League Minor team under Ron Paulus who are also sitting in fourth place.

We can proudly proclaim that every Junior team at West Torrens will be playing finals Baseball.

So now the real work begins as we try to position ourselves to win the title.

The club scoreboard for this week reads as follows:

WT Result Opponent Season Ladder
Division 1 9 defeated Southern Districts 8 10 – 10 (9th)
Division 2 5 lost to Southern Districts 7 13 – 5 – 2 (3rd)
Division 3 5 drew with Kensington 5 13 – 2 – 2 (1st)
Division 4 14 defeated Kensington 1 6 – 9 – 1 (7th)
Division 5 4 lost to Goodwood 8 5 – 12 (10th)
Division 6 6 lost to Sturt 7 11 – 4 – 2 (4th)
Under 18 10 defeated Adelaide 1 13 – 1 (1st)
Under 16 12 defeated Kensington 8 12 – 1 (1st)
Under 14 (1) 15 defeated Woodville 1 13 – 1 (1st)
Under 14 (2) 2 lost to Northern Districts 18 9 – 4 – 1 (4th)
LL Major 12 defeated Kensington 8 11 – 1 – 1 (1st)
LL Minor 10 defeated Saints 9 9 – 5 (4th)

February 28 our games are as follows:

Little League Minor: Coach: Ron Paulus
Sturt, Away at Flinders University on the Main Diamond
Starting at 10.00am (report 9.00am)

Little League Major: Coaches: Jamie Boydon and Tim Mead
Southern Districts, Away on the Junior Diamond
Starting at 12.00pm (report 11.00am)

Under 14 (2): Coach: Rob Dineen
Henley & Grange, Home on the Main Diamond
Starting at 10.00am (report at 9.00am)

Under 14 (1): Coach: David Green
East Torrens, Home on the Main Diamond
Starting at 12.30pm (report at 11.30am)

Under 16: Coach: Rick Mead
East Torrens, Home on the Main Diamond
Starting at 3.00pm (report at 2.00pm)

Under 18: Coach: Brett Ettridge
Woodville, Away on the Main Diamond
Starting at 10.00am (report 9.00am)

Fees: NO PAY NO PLAY

All outstanding amounts MUST BE PAID by this Sunday February 28 or those concerned WILL NOT be selected to play in any finals games.

Finals Selection Policy

During the regular season, we expect our coaches to rotate their squads through different positions, infield, outfield, pitching, catching and whatever their skill and experience allows. They also shuffle the batting order to make sure that players are given a fair opportunity at bat. When we enter the finals race, coaches are allowed to choose what they consider to be the line-up that best suits the team’s positional needs. They will endeavour to include all of the squad, but cannot guarantee that every player will see game time.

Quiz Night

A terrific night (albeit a hot one!!) had by all. Great to see so many supporters of the club bring along friends and family. A HUGE THANK YOU to Rick Mead for his eloquent performance as quiz master. Well done to the organising group for their hard work in getting the evening happening.

A reminder that funds from these occasions go directly back into your club to maintain and improve the amenity. So please continue to support the club as often as you can.

Junior Presentation Night

For your calendar, the wind up for the 2009/10 season will be Friday 26 March 2010 at the Club Rooms.

Good luck this weekend.

See you at the Ball Park.

Yours in Baseball
Mark McGarry
Junior Chairman
West Torrens Baseball Club