Australian Schools Championship (baseball)
The Australian Schools Championships for baseball, also informally named at all levels 'schoolboys', is an annual secondary school tournament that has been officially running since 1989. It includes an Open and U-15 tournament. Currently New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT compete in the Championship.
Teams are picked by their state's school sport association from their respective schoolboys state titles. It also provides an opportunity for the Australia national schoolboy baseball team to be picked.
Champions
|
|
|
Past Competitions
Geelong 2007
From 6 May to 12 May 2007 the Championship was held in Geelong, Victoria at the Geelong Baseball Park. The eventual tournament winner was Queensland, defeating New South Wales 3-1 in the final.
Lismore 2008
The 2008 tournament was held in Lismore, New South Wales at Albert Park from 4 May to 10 May 2008. Western Australia won the event defeating New South Wales 5-0 in the final.
Canberra 2009
In 2009, the tournament was held in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory from 4–9 May.
In one of the most tightly contested championships of recent years, the Victorian side came out on top, defeating NSW 5-3 in the final on Saturday.
Leading 3-0 early in the final, NSW fell victim to Victorian reliever Thomas Shaw who shut out his opponents the rest of the game - giving his team a chance of a thrilling comeback that they provided in turn.
For NSW the honours were shared, but some brilliant work in the field from shortstop Jacob Younis kept his side close enough to bring the tying run to the plate in the last inning. That was as close as the team got, as it took Victorian closer Andrew Jones just the one pitch to finish the game and bring the title back to Victoria - their first since 2005 and 7th in the history of the tournament.
In addition to team heroics, the tournament also played host to a raft of standout individual performances - culminating in the naming of the 2009 Australian Schools Team that will tour North America later this year under the guidance of Head Coach Stuart Hanrahan, assistants Chris Norrie and Brendon Wallace and tour Manager Neil Barrowcliff.
Perth 2010
The 2010 tournament was played a week later than usual and at Perth, meaning many states sent a weakened squad due to the geographic location of Perth in relation to the rest of Australia and that Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program was due to start earlier in the year.
New South Wales sent a roster far stronger than any of the other states and dominated the tournament, winning all eight matches and scoring an average of 12 runs per game. They defeated Australian Capital Territory in the final 10-5.
Individual standouts were Luke Parish from New South Wales, who batted .524 and Colin Tilini (1-0) also from NSW who pitched 8.1 scoreless innings in two appearances, striking out 11.
See also
- Australia National Youth Championships (baseball)
- Australia national schoolboy baseball team
- Baseball awards#Australia
- Baseball awards #U.S. high-school baseball
- The National Classic (United States)
- Japanese High School Baseball Championship ("Summer Koshien")
- Japanese High School Baseball Invitational Tournament ("Spring Koshien")
- High school baseball in South Korea
External links
- School Sport Australia website
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||