Tara Murray
After the longest ever off season, the North Western Titans were thrilled to return to the field at the weekend in Baseball Victoria Summer League.
With COVID-19 putting an end the Titans’ winter season even before it started, the Titans were finally able to return to the diamond for training about a month ago.
There was a sigh of relief at the weekend, as their men’s, women’s and juniors teams all played opening round matches.
President and coach Danny Haymes said everyone was excited to be back.
“After not being able to play the winter season, everyone has a spring in their step,” he said.
“We’ve been training since we’ve been allowed, with everyone wanting to get back out there and socialise.
“It’s been a hard seven months for a lot of people.”
Haymes said they entered the new season pretty buoyant about the hopes of all their sides.
Their men’s side will again play in division 3.
Haymes said that after struggling last season they had a bit more depth in both their men’s side.
“We have recruited well,” he said.
“We’ve added three guys from different clubs and we’ve had a couple of people that have rolled up which is nice.
“We’re picked up blokes that live on this side of the city.”
Most pleasing for Haymes is some of their junior players starting to step up and progress through the ranks.
It’s something they’ve worked on the past few years and it’s starting to come to fruition.
“Three juniors played on the weekend after coming through the ranks.
“It means I can play in the second grade and a few other older guys are also going back into the second grade as well.
“That is the plan that we wanted to do.”
The side started with a first up win against Chelsea.
The club’s women’s side is hoping to build on a finals appearance in division 3 west. It was a brilliant season for the Titans, who won their first game ever early in the season and continued to build on that.
Haymes said the women’s side would be slightly different to past season.
“We’ve lost a little bit of experience due to work commitments and COVID-19.
“We’ve had some new players as well, so we’re still expecting to be competitive as we have the core group back.
“We had a couple of trial matches against sides from higher grades and the girls have learned a lot.
“They’re champing at the bit.”
The women’s team lost in round one to Melbourne Demons 14-9 in four innings.
The club will field a new-look juniors side, while they are hoping to have a T-ball program for the younger players up and running early next year.
