THE focus for Hastings players at this year’s Easter Baseball Carnival will be on fun rather than results.
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The local boys won last year’s event after falling at the final hurdle the year before.
Now they have reached the heights of claiming bragging rights, vice-president David Boyton said banter levels would reach new heights when the action starts on Friday.
“We’re not playing for sheep stations, that’s for sure,” he said.
The timing of this year’s event has meant travelling team numbers are down, but Boyton said the interest in the sport locally had grown since the carnival was reintroduced three years ago.
“There has certainly been an increase in interest levels, for sure,” he said.
“We had half a dozen teams that had to pull out this year simply because of when Easter fell and it wasn’t in the school holidays.
“We’ll have seven teams, which is down on the nine from last year, but we could have had up to 15.”
As a result, there will only be one division instead of the two from last year.
“Being such a social carnival we’ve divided up the teams so the playing talent is spread as evenly as possible,” Boyton said.
We’re not playing for sheep stations, that’s for sure.
- David Boyton
Locally, baseball continued to grow.
“It’s the first time in a long time that we’ve had four established clubs locally who all have healthy numbers,” the vice-president said.
Wauchope Giants president Trent Begley said they were gearing up for another exciting year of baseball.
“We have four or five teams coming up from Sydney and two teams from the Hastings,” he said.
“This carnival has a lot of history in the Hastings, when it used to attract 20 teams from all over NSW,” Begley said.
“We invite everyone to come to Blackbutt Park over the long weekend to enjoy the baseball atmosphere, full canteen is available.
“For any new players that are interested, this is a perfect pre-season opportunity to get a look at the game.
Wauchope Giants Baseball Club will be starting the season off with training at Blackbutt Park on Wednesday April 11 at 6pm, with the first game of the season on Sunday April 29.
This carnival has a lot of history in the Hastings, when it used to attract 20 teams from all over NSW.
- Trent Begley
“We would also like to put a call out to any baseball umpires.
“This is a paid job, we are in a shortage, so if you have been an umpire in the past, or if you have moved to the area and have the skills, please come along and get involved.”
The 2018 Hastings Baseball Easter Carnival will take place from Good Friday, March 30 to Easter Sunday, April 1.
The action on Good Friday runs from 9.15am to 7.30pm.
Games on Saturday run from 7.30am to 7.30pm.
On Easter Sunday, the event starts at 8am, with the Grand Final commencing at 4.45pm.
