News

Baseball Australia have locked in an exciting summer of baseball for talented young players.

Over the course of late December into early January, in partnership with The Perfect Game, six international teams will be arriving on our shores to play a series of 48 games over nine days against Under 18 state squads in Brisbane, Melbourne, Geelong and Sydney. The games, held from December 29^th to January 6^th will provide additional competition opportunities for players that will be going on to play at the 2023 Australian Youth Championships in mid January.

The Australian Youth Championships will be held a Blacktown International Sports Park, where both the Under 16 and Under 18 events will be held for the first time since January 2020. The revised Championship format will see further innovation from the 2022 U16 AYC’s held in Redcliffe during the July school holidays.

Players will arrive into Sydney on the 9^th of January prior to taking part in Showcase activities and workouts presented by The Perfect Game on the 10^th and 11^th. Teams will then move into six double header days of completion to crown the Australian Champions with the finals being played on the 17^th of January. In all, over 60 games will be played across the six days of competition, with all games of Field one broadcasted and games on fields 2 and 3 also streamed.

The event will see further integration of strategic partners with Synergy Sport once again providing scouting analysis of the event at both age groups, and the attendance of Driveline Baseball at the Championships to provide workshops and coach education for the 50+ coaches who volunteer their time to support the AYC teams.

General Manager – Performance Pathways & Player Development Michael Crooks was excited about the summer ahead: “We have been waiting desperately for not just our country but the world to open up again for key under age baseball events. Over the last two years, we have been working incredibly closely with our state associations, The Perfect Game, Driveline Baseball and Synergy Sport to execute the plans that we have been making to both rethink and revision what a summer of baseball can look like for our talented young players. These plans will come to life in January and we cannot wait for everyone in attendance to see the program that has been set for the teams.

Crooks was especially buoyed by the opportunities created by the inbound Perfect Game teams.

“We have spent close to two years working with The Perfect Game on how we can create opportunities for US based teams to come to Australia at the right time of year to play our state teams. The timing of the games is perfect preparation leading into the AYC’s, and it will provide a fantastic framework of where we can build into South Australia and Western Australia in the summer of 2023/24 then reach down to the U16 age group the following year.

The selection process for State teams is well underway, with squads of 20 players to be announced by State Associations in the coming weeks.