THE 2023 Victorian Masters Baseball Carnival is being held in Ballarat with the first pitch to be thrown this morning, Friday, 24 March.<\/p>\n
Between 450 and 500 players over the age of 35 are expected to play across six diamonds on the Prince of Wales Park and Ballarat High School sites.<\/p>\n
The carnival\u2019s grounds infrastructure manager Greg Quayle said the tournament is free for anyone to enter and watch, and organisers are expecting it to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for the local economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a very high standard of baseball,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of the guys who are playing in the 35s and 45s have played for Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year we\u2019ve organised to have the Baseball Victoria umpires come up to Ballarat and use the Victorian Masters Baseball Carnival as a training exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty umpires will be taking part, and it\u2019s a great social tournament for them to learn at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ballarat High School\u2019s two ovals have been hired by organisers and have been converted to baseball fields with temporary drop-in mounds and bases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something that\u2019s never been done before in Ballarat, and if it\u2019s successful, it\u2019s something we could do at Alfredton Recreation Reserve, because we\u2019re currently limited by our number of grounds,\u201d Quayle said.<\/p>\n
The local Alfredton Baseball Club women, and Wombats men\u2019s team, will play throughout the tournament, with Ballarat Royals Baseball Club and Alfredton members providing catering.<\/p>\n
A City of Ballarat grant has funded the purchase and installation of pergolas and netting on the BHS ovals. There are four fields set up at Prince of Wales Park.<\/p>\n
Visit facebook.com\/groups\/vic.masters for more information including the program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE 2023 Victorian Masters Baseball Carnival is being held in Ballarat with the first pitch to be thrown this morning, Friday, 24 March. Between 450 and 500 players over the age of 35 are expected to play across six diamonds on the Prince of Wales Park and Ballarat High School sites. The carnival\u2019s grounds infrastructure […]<\/p>\n