a baseball battle

Richard Andrew

Sport Coordinator

BSC students Ryan Wu (Year 9) and David Sexton Carroll (Year 10) played in the State Under 16 Winter Baseball Championship in Latrobe Valley, July 20-21. Their team, Diamond Valley Junior Baseball Association, defeated five other Victorian teams to win the championship. The final game was even live-streamed on Facebook: click here to watch! 

It was a particularly busy week for David and Ryan, since they were also both participants in the whole-school musical production. Ryan played alto saxophone in the orchestra pit and David was on stage in the role of Takeberry,  so the boys managed How to Succeed at Musicals and Baseball at the same time!

Ryan Wu

Year 9

The Diamond Valley Baseball League consists of many baseball clubs within north metro area. It was a pleasure to participate in the Under 16 Baseball Representative Team to play the Victorian Winter Baseball State Championship.  It was also an honour to represent my club, school, friends, and families.  

It was a nerve-wracking, tough and a hard experience but all fun at the same time.  This experience gave me the courage and confidence to play against high-level baseball players. I also met new players who had never played in the state tournament before, as well as seeing some of my friends and rivals playing against me. Before the state tournament, we had about six three-hour training sessions to improve and adjust our strength, speed and reaction. This helped us to maintain our best condition for the tournament. 

We had two full day games during that weekend, with three games in each day. In the last game before the Grand Final, we were sitting at the top of the ladder.  Everyone in the team was so excited and nervous as we were going to battle for the gold medal.  During the Grand Final game, we lost a few points in the first inning and everyone suffered high pressure.  However, our coach got us together and pointed out our weaknesses. We started to fight back by using strong defense and powerful batting, one after another. Good teamwork led to us gaining a few points, using the strategies that our coach indicated.  We kept ourselves in an aggressively game situation until the umpire called “Time of Game”.  It was an unforgettable and touching moment.  We won -  we are the Victorian Winter Baseball State Champions! 

David Sexton-Carroll

Year 10

I’m new to playing baseball this year. Even though it was my first season playing with the North Coburg Rebels, I was surprised when I went to the state tryouts and was selected to play in the Diamond Valley team. It was a good experience for me and it encouraged me to play again in future. I enjoy batting, meeting new friends and trying a sport that’s new to me.

The team stayed overnight in Latrobe Valley, but I didn’t because I was in the musical. I had to get up at 5am to be driven to Morwell each day, which was very tiring. I’m glad I was able to do both the baseball and the musical but next year I hope I can stay for the whole weekend.

On the Saturday, I was named on the Baseball Victoria news report. Because of my hitting, my team scored three runs. I have been learning how to pitch, steal bases and the secret signals that we get from the coach. I feel like I have achieved a lot this year, starting from representing my school and coaching Year 7 students at the start of the year to playing and winning at the state level. I look forward to playing at a higher level in future. Ryan has been playing for longer. He has been really helpful to me.

Click on the gallery to see and enlarge more photos of the tournament.