Harper Sercombe
Williamstown Wolves have been on the wrong end of some bad luck in the Baseball Victoria summer league season.
Since being promoted to the premier division the Wolves have been one of the “surprise packets” of the competition as described by Sunshine Eagles coach Stuart Clayton.
While the Wolves’ record may read 2-5, four of the losses and both of the wins have been decided by just one run, showing the team’s competitiveness and rightful place within the competition.
Under the guidance of new coach Chris Rickard, president Chris Jackson has been encouraged by the start of the summer season.
“We’re definitely competitive and definitely staying in games,” Jackson said.
“We just need the offence to fire up a little bit, but we’ve pretty much got a full compliment of players, now that everyone is back.
“Our import, Brayden Bebee, arrived on the weekend and played his first game, he looks really strong.
“He’s a pitcher and threw six shutout innings and was pretty dominant.
“So we’re pretty excited to hopefully start to turn it around and get a little bit of reward for effort.”
To start the season the Wolves’ defence has been really strong conceding just 33 runs in the first seven games.
“We want to stay in games as long as we can to give our offence the chance to see the pitchers and start to put some offensive pressure on,” Jackson said.
“We’re having at bats, we’re getting the hits, getting base runners in scoring position, it’s just that final piece of getting them across the plate, but we’re working on that.
“We’re doing some things at training to help fire that up and we’re pretty confident that it’s going to turn around pretty soon.”
To help the Wolves have this promising start to their time in the premier division, Jackson said he has been impressed by a host of players.
“Dennis Neal has been a workhorse for us for the last few years and he’s picked up where he left off, he’s one of our starting pitchers,” he said.
“Jason Lester has started to work into the season as well and had a really strong performance while I was away.
“With the addition of Bebee now, our pitching staff looks really, really strong and we’ve obviously got a few guys under our belt that we can use now that the mid weekers have started.
“I think Jason McDonald has started the season well with the bat and leading the way for us with the likes of Aaron Green who’s a pretty handy player to have on your list.”
On Saturday the Wolves were victorious against Sunshine, winning 3-0.
