North Coast Breakers and Baseball WA are pleased to advise that Raleigh Pelkonen has been appointed to the newly created position of Sun City Charter Development Officer.
Raleigh's role will focus primarily on the developmental needs of the North Coast Breakers Ball Club. The new development officer will be based at North Coast Club for three months commencing on 5 October and will work with both players and coaches two days per week including on Saturday morning gameday with both the Little League and Intermediate League teams. The role's key responsibilities are to increase the knowledge and skill base of the club's coaches. Raleigh has a strong baseball pedigree coming from State League programs at Wanneroo Giants and more recently Morley Eagles as well as being a member of the Perth Heat development squad. He is also attending Arizona Western College in the United States where he will be returning early next year. This is an exciting development for the growth corridor along the northern coastal area of Perth and a vital investment into the coaching and player base. We hope you will share our congratulations to Raleigh on his appointment. The 2021 Australian Youth Championship has been cancelled and will be replaced with a range of localised content to ensure the development of the country’s up-and-coming talent is not negatively impacted. Baseball Australia and the state and territory bodies have unanimously agreed to the move – which comes in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – following an extensive review which included consultation of athletes and teams that would likely have featured in the event. Instead a range of local events will be held in each market to ensure players are afforded the opportunity to continue their development. Baseball Australia performance pathways and player development general manager Michael Crooks said a number of factors came into the decision, including health implications, logistical challenges presented by quarantine measures and financial risk. “It’s a bitterly disappointing outcome,” he said. “But our goal now is to ensure with the support of states and territories we provide enough opportunities to affected athletes to continue their development. “By doing this we can minimise the long-term disruption on our up-and-coming prospects and keep open the pathway they’ve worked so hard to climb.” The tournament, which traditionally takes place during the January school holiday period and includes U-16 and U-18 age brackets, will be replaced by local series. Details for the local series will be released in coming weeks but each event would be preceded by a showcase for college and professional scouts. The local series will see each market’s top talent given the chance to go head-to-head. Following the events the U-16 and U-18 National Junior Squads will be selected from the participants. Both squads would be invited to a camp in Canberra over the Easter period should government restrictions allow it.
The squads, subject to restrictions, would also head to Florida for a Perfect Game event prior to the U-18 World Cup later in the year. If international border restrictions prevented it, athletes would again attend a National Junior Squad camp in Canberra. Crooks said Baseball Australia’s strong relationship with technology providers would ensure international exposure for players. “Through our technology partnerships Rapsodo and Driveline’s TRAQ software will allow player profiling to be produced for all players competing in the local competitions,” Crooks said. “This information will be collated and distributed to the professional scouting and college network to ensure international exposure for all players. “This will minimise the medium to long-term impact on the development of our junior talent.” Baseball WA is working closely with Baseball Australia to confirm details of the local series which will be communicated accordingly. Baseball WA is pleased to announce a new partnership with Garment Exchange, the official uniform and merchandise supplier of WA baseball programs.
“Baseball WA is excited to partner with Garment Exchange for fantastic uniforms and apparel,” Baseball WA CEO Lachlan Dale said. “We recognise their innovative approach to sourcing, creating, and supplying custom apparel, which allows us to share products of the highest quality with the WA baseball community. We can’t wait to offer an extensive selection of baseball clothing merchandise to our clubs and players, and we look forward to a bright future with the Garment Exchange.” The Garment Exchange is a next generation, end-to-end product and multi-brand service solution changing the way customised garments and apparel are sourced, created and supplied. The West Australian based business specialises in the distribution of custom apparel and promotional garments whereby consumers can quickly and effectively source a variety of uniforms based upon quality, price and production time. With operations in both Australia and the USA, the Garment Exchange distributes the Alleson Athletic, Badger Sport, Cap America, Garb Athletic, ID Athletic and Teamwork Athletic brands throughout Australia and New Zealand. “We offer a number of established brands and products specific to diamond sports, and this partnership with Baseball WA will introduce the broader WA baseball community to our business and varietal marketplace model,” Mike Keeley, Garment Exchange Chief Commercial Officer, said. “Baseball clubs and consumers are able to access an unrivalled selection of on and off field apparel to meet their performance and budget requirements such as jerseys, trousers, hoodies, tees, headwear and much more.” “Growing up playing teeball and baseball in WA and as an avid fan of the Perth Heat, it is personally very pleasing to be able to supply quality performance-based uniforms and merchandise to the WA baseball community.” Click HERE to learn more about Garment Exchange. It's getting down to the pointy end of the 2020 MLB season and both teams with Aussies on their 40-man rosters are racing towards playoffs.
West Australian Liam Hendriks added to his win and save tally in another fantastic week, while Victorian Lewis Thorpe remains at Minnesota's alternate training site having pitched 16.1 innings this season. LIAM HENDRIKS Fresh off of earning the MLB American League Reliever of the Month honours for August, West Australian Liam Hendriks continues to lead Oakland as the A's maintain their top spot in the American League West division. The right-hander entered the Saturday, 5 September game at Oakland Coliseum against San Diego at the top of ninth, the Padres down by five runs. While Hendriks did give up a run - his first in eight games -, he still struck out two as the Athletics recorded an 8-4 win. Jurickson Profar was the first to go down swinging, before Trent Grisham and Fernando Tatis Jr made contact, the latter reaching second, prompting two runners to be in scoring positions. A Manny Machado sacrifice fly allowed Grisham to score before Hendriks put the game to bed by striking out Mitch Moreland. Travelling to Houston on Tuesday, 8 September, Hendriks collected his 11th save of the 2020 season, entering in the seventh inning of Game 1 of the day's doubleheader. Despite letting up a single to pinch-hitter Aledmys Diaz after Martin Maldonado grounded out, Hendriks got the last two batters - George Springer and Alex Bregman - to strike out swinging, confirming a 4-2 win to the Athletics. The 31-year-old picked up a win in his third game of the week, his third win of the season, when he entered the top of the ninth on Wednesday, 9 September against Houston. Hendriks needed to face just three batters to get Oakland into a position to try and take the game at the bottom half of the inning, and did so with strikeouts to Michael Brantley and Kyle Tucker, among a ground out from Yuri Gurriel. Oakland tied the scores at two-all as the seventh inning was completed. The bottom of the ninth started with the first two batters getting on base, Sean Murphy walked and Tony Kemp hit by a pitch. A couple of outs soon followed, but the runners were able to advance, pinch-runner Stephen Piscotty tagged out before reaching home the second out for the A's. Ramon Laureano singled to centrefield, allowing Marcus Semien to score and the Athletics to claim a 3-2 walk-off win. The closer returned to the mound on Thursday, 10 September to record his 12th save of the season - tied with Cleveland's Brad Hand. Despite initially being down a run, Oakland recorded a 3-1 win against the Astros, Hendriks facing just three batters to get the result - a strikeout for Martin Maldonado, and consecutive line outs, each to centrefield from George Springer and Alex Bregman. Hendriks' ERA sits at 1.33, slightly up from the past week. The game today was Hendriks' third day of pitching in a row, the third time he's done so through his career while Oakland are now 20-0 in games where Hendriks has pitched. Oakland have taken a six-and-a -half-game lead at the top of their division with a 27-15 record. It's the A's largest lead division since Wednesday, 25 September, 2013. Oakland begin a four-game series on the road against Texas across the weekend before turning their attention to series against Seattle and Colorado next week. Follow Oakland’s season on the official MLB website here. LEWIS THORPE Thorpe hasn't seen gametime for Minnesota since being recalled from the alternate training site for game one of a doubleheader against Detroit on Saturday, 29 August. The left-handed pitcher was the 29th player for the day's play and was sent back at the conclusion of game two when the squad needed to be cut to 28. Throughout the season, Thorpe has appeared in seven games, including one start on Monday, 3 August. From 16.1 innings pitched, he's given up 24 hits for 11 earned runs for an ERA of 6.06, with 10 strikeouts after starting the season giving up zero runs in 4.2 innings across his first two games. Overall, the Twins sit in second in the American League Central division with a 27-18 record. In the previous week, Minnesota took a 4-1 series win against Detroit before splitting the series one-all against St Louis. Minnesota will take on Cleveland in a three-game series before a four-game series against the White Sox, ending the week by remaining in Chicago for a meeting with the Cubs. For up-to-date schedules, scores and live action from the Twins, visit the official MLB website here. MLB ON KAYO If you’re wondering where to watch MLB, Kayo has you covered with some of the biggest games streamed live each week. In addition to MLB Strikezone showings, the Australian sports streaming service has the following lineup for games this next week:
Click HERE to check out Kayo and follow along with the MLB action live. New to Kayo? Sign up for a free 14-day trial HERE. With the start of the 2020/21 season just over a month away, Baseball WA would like to remind junior coaches of the new coaching accreditation scheme and the requirements to coach this season. The Baseball WA by-laws have been reflected to show the rules as follows: B4. Coaching Accreditations All coaches must comply with the national coaching accreditation standards set by Baseball Australia. At present these are as follows (club coaches are defined as any coach that enters the playing field / dugout during a game): Please click HERE to view the national accreditation system and sign up to renew accreditation.
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