By JARROD POTTER
WHILE his success in recent times would be enough for most sportsmen, Berwick Cougars slugger Jesse Hunter is on the ready to make some even bigger hits on his baseball journey.
Hunter, 15, from Pakenham, has kept busy in the past month as he won a gold medal as part of the Baseball Victoria under-16 state team.
Played in New South Wales throughout January, the championship match boiled down to Victoria and Western Australia, staunch rivals throughout their rise through the age groups which Western Australia has dominated.
This year, however, belonged to the Victorian Blues as Hunter and his team mates claimed an emphatic 13-5 victory on the back of an eight run seventh-innings.
“I’ve lost to WA four years in a row including Little League and it’s a good feeling to win it and finally beat WA,” Hunter said.
“Going into the seventh innings, top of it, we were five-all… we started hitting and hitting… the team put in an amazing amount of effort and we scored all those runs.
“I’ve never won a gold medal… this is the first one.”
It capped off a sensational summer of accolades for Hunter, also receiving a School Sports Victoria Sports Award as the male recipient of the baseball award.
“I didn’t know I was getting it… got a letter in the mail and it said I’d won the Victorian School Sports award,” Hunter said.
“It was great to win it – I was just so excited to get it.”
The hard-hitting slugger wants to take his talents to the Baseball Australia MLB Australia Academy later this year and hopefully impress the scouts en route to his dream of landing an MLB contract.
In the meantime he’ll keep smashing any opposition pitcher as he plays summer baseball for the Berwick Cougars.
Hunter thanked Mr Squires and Pakenham Secondary College for his School Sport Victoria Award nomination, his parents and little brother for their support.
