Pakenham youngster John King has been selected to play in the 24th Under 12 World Baseball Championships in Japan next week.By Brad Kingsbury
BASEBALL is a big hit for Pakenham youngster John King, who will leave for Japan to represent Australia in the 24th Under12 World Baseball Championships on Saturday.
The talented 12yearold St Patrick’s Primary School captain plays with the Berwick Cougars and, together with Narre Warrenbased teammate Adam Silva, is the first player from the club to make the 14strong national representative side put together by Baseball Victoria.
The 12day trip will start with several preliminary games before the World Championship is contested between teams from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, the US and Japan.
The Australian side will be coached by Paul Brown and is hoping to be competitive enough to better last year’s fourth place in the tournament.
John’s mother Nadine was his first coach in Kanga Cricket but he was too young for club cricket so went to play Tball at Berwick and loved it.
He progressed quickly, showing skill as a pitcher and shortstop and his coach, John O’Connor, recognised his talent and encourage him to try for the under12 side.
John was one of 90 to start the process of elimination. That was reduced to 44 before Christmas and then down to the final 14 after trial at Port Melbourne early this year.
A visiting Japanese team came out and played several friendly games in March and two Japanese children were billeted with the Kings, giving John his first exposure to the sport at international level.
It is John’s first trip out of Australia and he will be accompanied by his father Adam.
The trip is largely selffunded with assistance from grants and John will stay with a Japanese family while Adam will share accommodation with several other parents making the trip.
The schedule allows little time to rest, with the side expected to be up and going at 5.30am and play two to three games each day, however that does not concern the excited young player, who said he was expecting a good result.
“They are timed games over two hours and I think we’ll do pretty well,” he said.
“The Mexicans are probably going to be hard to beat and also America.”
