An unreal week of baseball was had up in Redcliffe, Queensland this month, as Baseball Australia hosted the second edition of the Little League Girls Nationals and their first ever Little League Invitational tournament. The focus of these events was to foster great competition, sportsmanship, fun, and inclusivity – and we would say it was a huge success!
Our state was represented by Cronulla and the NSW Composite team at the Little League (LL) Girls event and Hunter Coast in the LL Invitational. Baseball NSW congratulates both the NSW Composite team and Hunter Coast for winning their respective tournaments.
Hunter Coast hung their hats on defense and pitching to win a tense 3-2 gold medal game against the Adelaide Armada.
Pitcher Jehd Ireland led the way for the winning team. Throwing for 6.0 innings, he allowed only six hits and two runs, with zero earned runs, one strikeout, and one walk.
Meanwhile, the Armada also relied on their pitching staff throughout the game, but it wasn’t enough against Hunter Coast. Kade Coleman’s single in the first opened the scoring for Hunter Coast, and soon the team took a 3-0 lead by taking advantage of their opponent’s errors.
However, in the fifth, the Armada crept to within one run thanks to Bodie Jackson’s RBI double and Dylan Carter cashing in on an RBI single.
Then, in the bottom of the sixth, the Armada put Jackson Cakebread as the lead-off man with the tying run on base.
However, Ireland’s sure glove pitched to a series of ground balls that ultimately secured the win for Hunter Coast.
The team also rode a 5-1 record all the way to the gold.
On the LL Girls side, the NSW Composite squad also went undefeated in the entire tournament, going 6-0 with a staggering run differential of 47.
In the gold medal game, NSW Composite starting pitcher Caitlyn Gainsford struck out 13 batters in 5.1 innings while allowing only one run off one hit and walking three.
Meanwhile, NSW’s bats were humming as well, with Georgia Williams driving in three runs and two base knocks.
Gainsford also opened the scoring in the first inning with a two-RBI triple to center, then Williams took over with another home run to push NSW’s lead to a commanding 4-0 in the first.
It was purely academic at that point. In the third, Lily Wolstenhome scored two runs off a double to push the lead to 7-0. Then, Williams cleared the bases with a single that pushed their lead to 10-0.
The West Coast Rays put forth a valiant effort, though, avoiding the run-rule deficit in the fourth thanks to Stevie Oates scoring off a wild-pitch.
Still, it wasn’t enough as Williams struck out the final batter to win NSW’s second straight gold at Little League Girls.
While the Sharks ultimately bowed out of the Girls Nationals, they still showed out at the tournament. Yvette Wild, Nevaeh Fungalei, and Layla Kelly each scored four hits in their fifth-place loss to the Victoria Belles.
In the Sharks’ earlier victory over the Belles, Wild also pitched a complete game. Pitching 6.0 innings, Wild struck out 11, earned zero runs and zero walks, and allowed only six hits. She also scored two hits.
BNSW congratulates these teams’ efforts, win or lose! Thank you to Baseball Australia for hosting tournaments like these, giving our young players the opportunity to compete at the National level and showing that girls’ baseball is alive and thriving in New South Wales!
Photos courtesy of Baseball Australia (baseball.com.au)