A NEW Sunraysia baseball team had their inaugural B-grade match on Sunday, with the first pitch thrown by Mildura mayor Helen Healy.
The Mallee Bandits have formed A, B and C-grade sides under the guidance of Sunraysia Baseball League vice-president Graeme Witte, who has previous experience putting clubs together.
“This was a chance to do something new, though we were careful and cautious of not just bringing players in from other clubs but also encouraging enthusiastic new players,” Mr Witte said.
“We’ve got quite a number of players who are all new to the game, we’re all about establishing an expansion team, rather than just a split-off team.
“It’s injected a bit of enthusiasm into the competition, I think it’s showed some teams who have been struggling in recent years that it’s possible to go out there and recruit, if you offer a good product then people will want to participate.”
Mr Witte said he has learnt from past experiences about what works and what doesn’t, which has short cut a lot of processes, helping to bring forward a lot of the positives ahead of the season opening.
“Some of these new guys who have never played a game before have improved so much from our first training in February, a lot of them are playing like they’ve already got two or three seasons under their belt,” he said.
“Baseball is a great and inclusive sport, we’ve got women and players with special needs in our teams, everyone is welcome and we’re always encouraging new players.”
All grades will have Saturday and Sunday games throughout the 2025 season, with anyone interested in more details welcome to contact malleebanditsbaseball@gmail.com.
