Wannabe Bandits put through paces
A LACK of competition won’t stop Cairns’ best baseballers from chasing their big-league dreams, with five budding juniors making their pitch to play for Queensland at the national championships in January.
Brothers Mac and Brock Wollin, along with Kyle Ashby, Riki Ward and Mirai Dymond ran through drills on Saturday afternoon at Edmonton for 90 minutes under the watchful eye of NQ Storm coach Karina Connors.
Infielder Ward and catcher Ashby weren’t given any special treatment after returning from a tour of the US as part of the Next Gen Academy last week, fielding ground balls with their teammates before raking the infield at the end of training. But the duo admitted the chance to play five games against US high school teams from Arizona and California, had made them even more determined to take their games to the next level.
“The highlights for me were touring four colleges. We went to Arizona State, UCLA, Cal State and then Long Beach,” Ashby said.
“It’s a real eye-opener. I was like ‘I could definitely see myself going here’ after each tour I went on.”
Ashby has credited his improvement behind the plate this season to some tough love from Cairns City Reds playercoach Torey Williams.
“Torey rides me pretty hard but the pay-off is really significant,” the St Augustine’s student said.
“All of his knowledge is great. He’s drilled me really hard. A couple of times at training I’ve said, ‘stuff this, I’m going home’ and Torey says ‘nope’. It’s all about repetition and working on my game awareness.”
Fellow Reds junior Ward said he hoped feedback on his batting while in the US will help him crack the state 18s team as a bottom-aged player.
“Our coaches told us what we can improve on,” he said.
“I need more bat speed, core strength and to really drive the ball.
“I’ve been hitting in the morning before school and then training with these guys.
“Because I made the under-16s as a first-year player, I’m motivated to do it again.”
Teenage tearaway Brock Wollin said Far North players typically work harder than their big city rivals.
“There isn’t the level of competition which makes it harder to build our skills sometimes,” the pitcher said. “It’s about training every day and getting the work in.”
The Australian Youth Championships will be held at Blacktown, NSW, and run from January 11-20.