Tara Murray
The Sunshine Eagles promising start to the Baseball Victoria summer league premier league was brought to a halt by rain on Saturday.
The Eagles faced Fitzroy on Saturday in round one and led 2-0 after two innings. Rain then hit and that would be it for play.
The game was declared a draw as five innings weren’t reached.
Eagles coach Stuart Clayton said they had been looking really good early on.
“It bucketed down for a good hour,” he said. “We didn’t get to play enough innings.
“They didn’t get a hit and we had five or six hits in the first two innings but we couldn’t keep the rain away.
“It was still pretty good and we were able to get a couple away.”
Clayton said it had been a really positive off season for the club and they would only get better as the season goes.
The Eagles were missing several key players in their opening match.
Australian star Darryl George was on holiday and will soon join the Australian squad and he won’t play many matches this season.
Main pitcher Jamie Young is out injured.
“He’s got a back injury,” Clayton said. “He won’t play until after Christmas.”
Import James Williams III is due to arrive in time for round three.
Williams is from Huntington Beach in Southern California and played college at William Jessup University and University of California.
Clayton said the footage he had seen showed that he could swing a bat and was handy in the field.
“We’re looking forward to him coming,” he said. “He’s a catcher and he looks really good.”
The Eagles also added a number of players in the off season. Tayler Rowe, who hasn’t played for seven years, pitched on Saturday.
Billy Parsons, who claimed the league’s best player award for the 2020-21 season, will also be back around his Australian Baseball League commitments.
With the few absences early on, Clayton said they were focused on trying to stay at least at 50 per cent win rate for the first five to six rounds as the group to settles in.
“Two years ago we finished second bottom,” he said. “Last season we missed out on finals by 0.2 per cent.
“We are hoping to be around the mark again. Hopefully we’ll get everyone back after Christmas and hopefully we’ll be at our best for the business end of the season.”
This season the top flight will stay as one division instead of splitting midway through. Each team will play each other twice before a knock out series where the final two teams are left.
Clayton said Baseball Victoria was trying to match up to the American college system.
Off field things are going well for the Eagles with their new ball pen just finished and work underway on their hitting tunnel.
Sunshine is at home in round two this Saturday against Essendon.
