T-BALL

T-ball had a great night and lots of fun practising their throwing and catching in pairs for warm-up before jumping through the obstacle course, however this week batting practice remained a crowd favourite. Patrick Doran and Lewis Scicluna made a great pair during the throwing warm-up while Matilda Lewis did great during the obstacle course.

We then went into an exciting game despite being slightly low on players. Lexi Balzke and Henry Meredith did a great job on the pitcher's mound, Patrick Doran and Charles Meagher doing great on first base, jumping with joy whenever they got a player out. Awesome hit by Thomas Lalancette into the outfield and Grace Wilson had a great hit between second and third base.

Atticus Scicluna was very excited about hitting the ball with such a big swing he threw the bat instead. He was ready for action again after a laugh and made a nice hit between first and second base.

McDonald's sports awards were this week achieved by Lexi Balzke and Charles Meagher.

Zooka/Juniors

Zooka/Junior Baseball this week was full of energy and laughs as the kids played their weekend game of baseball.

The night started out with warm-ups before heading into skill based training. Players were split into their Seahawks, Stingrays and Dolphin teams to do a rotating number of activities involving running, hitting, catching and using hand-eye co-ordination before setting into a game.

With Zooka machine in place it was time to start the innings off. With some pretty even teams it was hard to see who was winning each innings with each player making it on base and many making it over home plate. Some good hits for the night went to Allison Davis out to centre field, Cooper Stibbard to right field, Daniel Lawler into centre field and Paige Williams hitting a huge one to left field. An amazing effort over the whole night was Michael Rogers in fielding and batting.

McDonald sports awards for the night were awarded to Lochlan Quiney, Paige Williams and Milla Balzke.

Junior League

Junior league on Sunday, December 1, travelled to Berkeley to play Dapto Chiefs. Rain the night before made for a gorgeous soft ground for play.

Mariners home team meant Chiefs into bat first, starting the day off pitching slowly allowing them to gain 5 across home plate but not before 2 strike outs.

Mariners into bat next saw Mackenzie Mannix up to bat first getting walked to first base then stealing his way around bases and sliding into home plate, unfortunately the only scored run for the innings.

Chiefs up for second innings saw 6 walks for the innings with 5 of those making it around and over home plate to bring their total runs scored so far 10-1. Mariners up to bat saw pitching a little all over the place bringing Cooper Stibbard and Daniel Lawler both onto base by walks before moving their way around bases by a combination of wild pitches and stolen bases to both make it over home plate bringing the score to 10-3.

Third and final innings saw some impressive hits by Chiefs getting them onto base bringing in 5 across home plate to finish their innings out with a total of 15 runs scored. Mariners up to bat for the last time for the day saw bats come alive with Riley Mason having a massive hit out to right field gaining him two bases starting of the runs scored of the innings. Cooper Stibbard, Will Canaris, Arana Palmer and Mackenzie Mannix followed suit by all gaining home plate to close off the innings with a comeback of 5 runs scored bringing the finishing score to 15-8. Well done to the team bringing it back.

Pitching duties were shared between Cooper Stibbard, Riley Mason and Mitchell Parrott. Catching duties for the day were done by Daniel Lawler and Mackenzie Mannix.

McDonald's sports award for the day was awarded to Riley Mason for impressive hits of the day.

This year we welcome the Balzke family to the Shoalhaven, our newest family from Sydney with five children. Josh Balzke (Dad) has had many years' experience in playing and coaching in Sydney and has relocated down to our local area. Josh will be taking on a coaching role with our Juniors on Friday afternoons with our Shoalhaven Mariners Junior Baseball. Shoalhaven Mariners Baseball are looking forward to Josh's experience and knowledge being filtered into our Junior players.