Tara Murray
It was the perfect return to the field for the Sunshine Eagles in the Baseball Victoria Summer League division 1.
After a tough first two-thirds to the season which has the Eagles towards the bottom of the table, the Eagles were back on the diamond on Saturday after the Christmas break.
Facing Essendon, the Eagles snuck home in a thriller, winning 1-0.
Eagles coach Cameron Deeble said it was nice to get a win like that after the break.
“It was a good start,” he said. “We always seem to have some close battles in recent times with Essendon.
“I thought our defensive side was really good. We made some great plays in the field and our two pitchers were on point and the fielders backed them up in the field.”
Import Justin Revels pitched for the first six innings before Adam Irons took over for the last three innings, with Deeble saying both played really strong games.
The win was just the Eagles fourth for the season, not what they expected heading into the season.
Deeble admits that they’ve had their challenges so far.
“We’re coming into the last third of the season,” he said.
“We’ve lost a few players to the ABL [Australian Baseball League] and some to long term injuries to key players.
“But we’ve been able to give some young players from the twos a go. They’ve come in and filled holes and we’ve asked a lot of them.”
Deeble said Devin Leahy and Patariki Grego-Pouaka were the two younger ones to get the most opportunities, while there’s more youngsters in the second side.
With the return of players like Allister Lovelock from injury and the ABL coming to its completion, things are looking up for the Eagles in the remaining rounds.
Deeble said they were hopeful of putting out some good performances to finish the season on a high.
“We’ll give it a good crack,” he said. “We want to get back to where we should be in this competition,
“There are eight games after the break and it would be good to finish with a winning record, which would be really good for us.
“The season so far has been a bit of a challenge. We’re ready to take on that challenge and see where it takes us.”
It’s been a busy few weeks for some of the Eagles youngsters as they represented Victoria at the Australian Youth Championships.
Both under-16 and under-18 boys teams both won bronze.
Devin Leahy, Nathan Rumbelow and Hudson Pallay were all part of the under-16 team.
Rumbelow and Pallay are currently playing in the Eagles second side, with Deeble saying their time will come in the senior team.
Meanwhile, Makayla and Lily McKenner both represented Victoria at the softball national titles in the under-18s and under-16s respectively.
Both are part of the Eagles under-18 team.
“It’s pretty good signs for the junior program.”
