By JARROD POTTER
THE next great Hogan family baseballer has earned his first Australian jersey.
Following in the footsteps of his Australian/Victorian representative dad Rob, Rydge Hogan, 16, from Berwick, earned his green-and-gold debut on the back of his Southern Mariners’ Australian Senior League Championship (ASLC) victory last week.
Held in Lismore, New South Wales last week, the Mariners swept aside the competition, including a 6-1 rampage in the finale.
Coming up against a power-packed Hills – a New South Wales team – in the finale, the Mariners smashed their northern counterparts by five runs in the final, held at Albert Park Baseball Complex, to book their tickets to the Philippines.
“It was awesome – there were a lot of good baseballers out there, but some good pitching allowed me to play well and it was pretty good,” Hogan said. “The grand final was great – just because I’ve never won a gold medal in a championship game and love how our team went through it and went about it.”
The Berwick Dodgers/Springvale Lions pitcher was given a spot on the mound in the third round of the tournament and also swung cleanly, connecting on his at-bats to impress on both sides of baseball ledger.
With their victory, the Southern Mariners will now head to Clark, Philippines from 11-17 July to represent Australia in the Asia Pacific Championship. Another victory there will guarantee Hogan and his team mates a ticket to the Senior League World Series.
What keeps him coming back to the sport? Just a deeply ingrained love of all things baseball and he hopes that passion can keep his ambitions ticking along in years to come.
“I love it – I’d play every day if I could – love the mound and would love to take my pitching to the next level,” Hogan said. “Doing well over in the Philippines is the first thing, I just want to see how we go from there and get a bit bigger and stronger in the gym.
“There’s a lot of training in between now and then to get even better than we are now … so it’s not too far away.”
He wanted to thank his clubs and parents for their support of his baseball passions.
“I play for Berwick in the winter and Springvale in the summer and I’d like to thank both clubs and mum and dad for what they do for me,” Hogan said.
