(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Melbourne Aces)
 First female-player debuts in Australian professional baseball
Nederlands
 ALTONA, Victoria (Australia) -
17-year old lefthanded pitcher Genevieve Beacom took the mound for Melbourne Aces on Saturday (January 8).
With that, she not only made her debut for the team from Melbourne, but also became the first woman to play for an Australian professional baseball-team.
...Genevieve Beacom during her...
...debut for Melbourne Aces...
(© Photo: Melbourne Aces) |
On October 22, it was announced that the 2021-2022 season of the Australian Baseball League was cancelled due to interstate travel-restrictions and lockdowns which were/are imposed because of the coronavirus-pandemic (COVID-19).
The season originially was to open on November 18 and to finish on January 23, then was postponed to late December.
For the second year in a row, only six teams would have participated.
Due to (international) travel restrictions, the teams of Geelong-Korea and Auckland Tuatara again were not to participate.
Geelong-Korea plays in Australia, but is composed of player from South Korea, while the Auckland-team plays in New Zealand.
After the season had been cancelled, Melbourne Aces set up the Melbourne Challenge to be able to come into action in a few games this year.
In the 3-game (all seven inning) series, the team met Adelaide Giants last Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The games were played last weekend at Melbourne Ballpark in Altona, a suburb of Melbourne.
Melbourne Aces won the first game with a 2-1 score, then Adelaide won the next two games, 7-1 and 10-2.
No foreign players were part of the rosters of both teams and so, only Australian players participated in the series.
Justin Huber, General Manager of Melbourne Aces, said:
,,While it’s not a normal ABL season, the Melbourne Challenge against Adelaide will allow two of the best teams in the past 2 ABL seasons to continue their rivalry.
And while we won’t have any of our international contingent, we are so proud to be able to have some of the best Baseball talent in Australia pull on the Aces jersey.
We are also very proud to be able to give the Baseball loving fans of Melbourne the opportunity to watch top-level Baseball at our newly renovated Ballpark in Altona.''
The opener on Friday started 99 minutes late due to storm and heavy rain.
The game was won by Melbourne (2-1), thanks to strong pitching from Jon Kennedy (4 innings) and Dan McGrath (3 innings).
Melbourne scored in the third and fifth inning, both times by Aiden Willis, who was 2-for-3.
Adelaide scored its lone run in the seventh inning.
On Saturday-evening, Adelaide evened the series by winning 7-1.
However, history was written when Genevieve Beacom entered the game in the sixth inning to become the first female athlete to play for a professional Australian baseball-team.
The 17-year old lefthander was signed early January by Melbourne as a development player for the 2022/2023 season.
After Adelaide's lead-off hitter Griffin Weber reached in the sixth inning, Beacom was inserted.
She threw a scoreless at bat in her lone inning on the mound.
After Weber was forced out on a grounder, Beacom walked the next batter, but then another force play-grounder and a flyout followed to end the inning.
On Sunday-afternoon, Adelaide won 10-2 to win the third game, as well as the series.
Adelaide took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Melbourne came alongside in the second at bat.
Adelaide re-took the lead in the fourth with a 4-run rally, then added more runs in the sixth (one) and seventh (three).
(January 10)
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