Tara Murray
The fruits of a number of years of work are starting to show through for the North Western Titans and set to be on display in the Baseball Victoria summer league.
After building their junior program over a number of years, many of those juniors are starting to progress into the senior ranks.
Men’s coach Danny Haymes said it was pretty exciting to see those young players come through in both the men’s and women’s programs.
“We have a lot more juniors coming through,” he said. “They are old enough to come through and we’ll have a reasonably young squad.
“We’ve been talking about the juniors and they’re now ready to play at the standard. It’s very exciting and seeing them coming through is really rewarding.
“They’ll have some good days and some hard days as they’re still learning.”
Haymes said they would probably switch between the top two grades throughout the season.
While only planning to return to coaching for one season, Haymes is back coaching the men’s side as they look to keep a bit of stability into the program.
He said they were hoping they could have a strong season again.
“We’re looking like we’ll be really competitive again,” he said. “Baseball Victoria changed the structure again and we’re in state league 1 and 2.
“It’s equivalent to what it was last year.”
In state league 1 west, the Titans lost to Footscray 15-4 but there were a lot of positives out the game, while state league 2 west beat the Bulldogs 10-9 in overtime.
Both teams are at home to Geelong this Saturday.
On the women’s side, the Titans have dropped from two teams to one team.
Haymes said it means they can have one strong team and don’t have to worry about numbers to fill both teams.
He said they would have three junior girls come into the senior side which was something he was really looking forward to.
“I think we will be really competitive,” he said. “I’m looking forward to seeing where they go this season.”
The women’s side started their season on Saturday against Alfredton in women’s regional west.
Scores were 13-9 when the game got cut short due to rain, but they showed a lot of potential.
The women’s side this week face Sunshine on Saturday.
Haymes said the junior program continues to go from strength to strength as well.
They will have a team in the under-12s major competition for the first time and it would be a stepping stone for the club.
The big thing for the club has been the introduction of speedball.
“It’s for all our kids under the age of 12,” Haymes said. “We trialled it during the winter and it gained a lot of traction.
“It’s played at MacPherson Park on Friday nights and and suits kids between five and 12 and they get to play at home without travel.”
