Aaron Ouwehand, coach Dan Betreen and Lachlan Beasley won silver at the National Youth Baseball Championships. 76189 Picture: Jarrod Potter
By Jarrod Potter
LACHLAN Beasley and Aaron Ouwehand represented Victoria at the Baseball National Championships, held this year in Perth and played well to help Victoria win a silver medal.
Beasley, 13, from Berwick, and Ouwehand, 13, from Beaconsfield, represented under-14 Victoria Blue in the championships and both walked away from the tournament with impressive achievements.
Beasley, playing out of third base, hit four home runs, including a walk-off home run, and 21 RBIs in the event and Ouwehand played as catcher in four complete games and hit at .313 in his matches.
“We came second, so I was a bit disappointed,” Beasley said. “It was a good and a bad loss as we played alright. We played against the WA Heat.”
The walk-off home run stands out to Beasley as his favourite moment in the championships.
“It was the bottom of the seventh and none out, runner on second. The count had two strikes on me, so I was just trying to make contact, but I hit it pretty hard and it kind of went over. It was pretty big.
“I kind of didn’t run, I just watched it a bit, hoping it went over. Once it went over it was a great feeling.”
Ouwehand caught four complete games, as the number one catcher for Victoria, which is a big achievement in the under-14s.
His favourite play was a dive he made against Western Australia in their first encounter to stop a runner getting home.
“In the walk-off game, I made a couple of good plays and stop plays,” Ouwehand said.
“There was a big hitter up, runner on third, one out.
“He hit a flyball to deep centre and our centre fielder James Franklin catches it, the runner tags up and we get him out.”
The gold medal game was physically demanding for Ouwehand, as he had a sore thumb going into the match and his bat snapped early in the game.
“Started off hitting well,” Ouwehand said. “In my first at-bat in the grand final my bat cracked, so I had to use a different bat for the rest of the grand final which wasn’t ideal, but you can’t change that.”
The pair now set their sights on performing well at the Victorian Winter Baseball Academy on top of their club baseball commitments, with Ouwehand playing for Dandenong Angels and Beasley playing for Ringwood.
