
Countdown to Under 15 World Cup
UPDATE (Monday 11 July 2016)
Baseball Australia today announced the national squad that will be travelling to Japan for the Under 15 World Cup. Congratulations to all!
Daniel Bannon (NSW)
Ben Fierenzi (VIC)
Jo Stevens (NSW)
Liam McCallum (NSW)
Tyson McKee (SA)
Will Kortekaas (SA)
Blake Cavill (NSW)
Ethan Stacy (NSW)
Hayden Lyberopoulos (NSW)
Caleb Shepherd (NSW)
JD Winlaw (QLD)
Declan Croker (VIC)
Dylan Walsh (WA)
Liam Evans (VIC)
Matthew Martin (WA)
Maxim Watson (QLD)
Zac Mansfield (QLD)
Chris Burke (VIC)
Thomas Horne (NSW)
Blake Townsend (VIC)
As previously announced, Andrew Kyle will be Head Coach. His Assistant Coaches will be Damian Shanahan, Mark Shipley and Graeme Lloyd, with Neil Barrowcliff the Executive Officer.
Kingsley Collins
8 July 2016
With so much happening in Australian baseball – starting next week with the Southern Mariners’ participation at the Senior League Asia Pacific Series (Philippines) and the Honkbal Tournament (Netherlands) shortly after – Baseball Australia is poised to announce our national squad for the Under 15 World Cup.
An invaluable opportunity for Australia to gain IBAF points, the Under 15 World Cup will be held in Iwaki Japan, from 29 July to 7 August.
Running concurrently with the Major League Baseball Academy Programme on the Gold Coast, a training and selection camp was this week concluded for almost forty eligible players from across the land (see below).
Of those, twenty have been selected for the World Cup squad.
“The team has been finalised,” Baseball Australia High Performance Manager Glenn Williams told Baseball Australia. “We will aim to let all of the kids know in the next day or two and will announce as soon as possible after that.”
Drawn in Group A for the Opening Round, Australia will play Japan, Cuba, South Korea, Czech Republic and Colombia – a challenging assignment given that only the top three teams from each of the two groups will move on to the Super Round prior to finals.
“We know that it will be a tough ask, especially against Japan – ranked highest in the word – as well as Korea and Cuba, who are both in the top five, but we are confident that we have picked a squad that will give us our best possible chance,” Glenn Williams said.
“On a side note, the Under 15 raffle was a reasonable success and will help offset some of the costs for the training camp and for the World Cup squad,” he said. “We will be aiming to draw the raffle over the next few days and get the prizes out to everyone shortly after that.”
“On behalf of the group, we would like to thank Australian Baseball Alumni for providing caps for all of the boys who attended the training and selection camp.”
Australian Baseball Alumni will post the Under 15 World Cup squad as it becomes available, along with the winners of Alumni raffle prizes.
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Under 15 World Cup training squad played against Robina High School earlier this week