The sound of baseballs clinking against bats and slamming home into gloves will echo across Don Waring Oval once again this winter as the Strikers gear up for a return to the Newcastle competition.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Having sat out the 2018 season in what would have been Nelson Bay Baseball Club’s 25th anniversary due to a shortage of players, it is now actively recruiting fresh blood in order to field two teams in 2019.
“Last year was a very difficult year for the club with injuries and key players leaving the area,” club manager Bill Marshall said.
“We didn’t field a team for the first time since the formation of the club in 1994. Not playing last year was a shock.”
Dave Connors, a 40-year veteran of the sport and founding member of the Nelson Bay club, said not fielding a team last season was a “kick in the guts”.
But it only fuelled the drive to reboot player numbers and ignite a passion for baseball in anyone willing to give the sport a go.
“It’s exciting, it’s different and if you’re good enough, you actually can have a run and four or five bats,” Connors said. “All you really need to be good at baseball is decent hand-eye coordination.”
It was a chance meeting at a service station between Warrick Lilly and Connors, who had been dressed in his Newcastle White Sox uniform, in 1993 that the seed to establish a baseball club in the Bay was sown.
Steve Sherman, Geoff Barling, Karen Connors and Ken and Lorraine Webb joined the bandwagon and helped to formally create Nelson Bay Baseball Club.
Between 1994 and 2017, more than 135 seniors and 60 juniors represented the Strikers on the baseball diamond.
In the past 24 years Strikers teams played in 19 grand finals, winning 10.
Arguably, the Strikers’ peak season was 1997 when four teams – under-14, fourth, fifth and eighth grade – claimed premierships.
The last premiership came in 2014 when fourth grade defeated Newcastle baseball giants Belmont in the grand final.
“The club aims to be competitive in winter 2019. We are looking additional players to help us do this,” Marshall said.
“We have 18 regular and new players keen to get back on the diamond including foundation members Dave Connors, Warrick Lilly and Ray Anderson and four juniors from the year 2000.
The 2019 winter baseball competition runs from mid-April to September.
The Newcastle baseball competition area forms a triangle between Belmont, Maitland and Nelson Bay.
Included in the Newcastle association’s catchment is Seaham Storm Baseball Club.
Anyone aged 16 or above interested in playing baseball for Nelson Bay, no matter what level of experience they have in the sport, can contact Marshall on 0458 130 099.
Batting practice begins first Sunday in February.
Ellie-Marie Watts
A journalist with 10 years experience, Ellie-Marie connects readers to the stories that matter in their communities. A Port Stephens-based news, sport and event writer and photographer with a passion for human interest features.
A journalist with 10 years experience, Ellie-Marie connects readers to the stories that matter in their communities. A Port Stephens-based news, sport and event writer and photographer with a passion for human interest features.
