Bolstered Cubs out to go straight to top
INCOMING Cubs coach Al Connors says his team has the talent to win the Cairns Baseball League division one championship this season, despite going winless last year.
The Cubs will face the Heat on Sunday afternoon at Trinity Beach in their season-opener, while defending champions Reds take on Bandits in a grand final rematch.
Connors said the inclusion of talented Queensland junior Kaiki Furutani-Burns and the return of several club veterans would ensure the Cubs were more than competitive this season.
“A championship is our goal. We’re not going to apologise for that,” he said yesterday.
“Reds will be strong and are probably justifiably favourites but we think we’ll test teams all season.
“The guys who’ve come back are stalwarts of Cairns baseball. The likes of John Tolentini and Brad Jones have all come up together.
“We’ve got a few other guys rehabbing and I’d hope they come back into the side.
“We’re in a unique situation. We have an influx of players coming back to the club and we have lots of depth that can cover most positions.”
Furutani-Burns, who played for the Bandits last season, will likely spend more time on the mound this year after predominantly playing third base and catcher as a junior.
“We’ve been working on Kaiki to master three pitches,” Connors said.
“He’s got a fastball, a breaking ball and a slider. He’s lucky in that he has natural ‘sink’ on his fastball. It gets him a lot of ground ball outs. With his slider, we think it will go away from right-handed hitters and give him some nice variation.”
Cubs treasurer Michelle Henderson said the club had undergone major changes during the off-season.
“We have a new jersey and sponsors,” Henderson said.
“Our juniors are now known as Cubs too, whereas they were previously the Bears.
“It gives the juniors a clearer idea of what they can aspire to and also gives our senior players a sense of ownership for their junior club.”
The Cubs’ season opener starts at 2.30pm on Diamond 2 at Nautilus Street.