It was a glorious morning for junior baseball at Mill Park last Saturday as Research Lower Plenty took a 13-0 win over Doncaster in the under-13 Majors.

Research coach Jojo Azrein paid credit to his team, who hit particularly well despite missing a number of players.

“They went well! We played short, we played with seven, obviously being the long weekend we didn’t have two of our players,” Azrein said.

“But those guys who came in, Ben pitched really well, we batted well I think, all around. Beside the last inning we maxed out every inning with our bats, so we were doing well with the bat today,” he said.

Azrein nominated pitcher Ben Bird, who threw two innings, as player of the match, but highlighted it was a team win overall.

“The whole team played well, I think almost everyone got on base, everyone probably got a run too, so the team played well around,” Azrein said.

As is common across the league, there were plenty of family and friends in attendance to support the juniors, including Ben’s dad Adam, who was scorer for Research.

He highlighted the importance of supporting clubs through volunteering, to make sure the kids have the best experience possible.

“The game would wither without the volunteers, so it’s about giving back to the club, which gives a lot to our kids,” Bird said.

It was a bluebird day at Melbourne Uni’s Ross Straw Field for their A3 opening day clash against Heathmont.

The visitors got a 4-run jump in the top of the first, with UMBC’s journeyman starter Gary Mills taking a dig to blow out the cobwebs.

Uni replied with 6 runs in the bottom half of the inning, and it was a one-sided affair from there.

Mills responded with three shut-out innings, before being relieved by Kyle Nakamura who also allowed zero runs.

Meanwhile UMBC piled on the pain, with contributions across the lineup plating 19 unanswered runs to finish with a 19-4 score line.

Uni team manager Jonathan Jones was understandably impressed with his team’s first outing for the season.

“We had guys hitting up and down the lineup, everybody scoring, knocking people in, and we wound up with a pretty comfortable win,” he said.

Jones was particularly impressed with his team’s ability to respond after Heathmont got the jump in the first.

“It’s alright to get punched every now and then by the other team. But if you can show them you can punch back quickly and twice as hard, that sets the tone for the rest of the game and that’s precisely what they did today,” Jones said.

For player of the round Jones nominated first-baseman Sach Fernando (pictured right), who went 3 for 4 including a bases-clearing triple, and 4 RBIs.

Stay tuned for match of the round coverage each week throughout the season!