Tara Murray
Williamstown Wolves are hoping some extra depth will help them be around the mark in the Baseball Victoria summer league premier 1st nine competition this season.
The season kicked off on Saturday for the summer league competition, but many sides including the Wolves top side didn’t get on the pitch due to rain.
Wolves president Chris Jackson said the playing group had been itching to get out there. He said things were looking pretty good for this time of the year.
“It’s been really good,” he said. “We’ve got some good acquisitions in the off season with some new players coming in and we have a new import.”
Jackson said they had looked to bring in plenty of depth across all positions and grades.
The biggest signing was import Spencer Taack.
Jackson said everyone had been keen to see import Spencer Taack through some balls on the weekend.
Tacck had pitched all five of his years of his college career at Henderson State University.
He was originally a two-way outfielder-pitcher, he converted to a pitcher-only later in his career.
Jackson said they felt like they had added to their squad.
“Connor Hughes has come across to us and has started the season in the ones,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of returning players as well as some other guys that have come to the club that will float through the ones and twos.
“After November we play two games a week for the rest of the season in the ones, so it will test our depth.”
Jackson said they had lost Aaron Green, who had retired, but were hopeful that they had covered his departure with some of the acquisitions.
With a new finals structure in place and with the top eight to play finals, Jackson said that was what their aim was this season.
The Wolves are at home this Saturday against Melbourne.
On the women’s side of things, Jackson said it had been a bit of a trying off season.
With a change of structure for Baseball Victoria it meant many of the side couldn’t commit.
Jackson said to ensure those who still wanted to play had somewhere to go, they’ve got a combined side in the state league competition with Footscray.
“We have a close relationship with Footscray,” he said. “We merged a team with them and it’s called Footscray-WIlliamstown.
“It’s a step up for our girls in a higher league and they are keen to keep going. We’ve working on getting a standalone team again next season.”
The joint women’s team had a 9-1 loss to Melbourne on Saturday.