The Ku-Ring-Gai Stealers played in the C Division of this year’s Tamworth Invitational Baseball Carnival held over the June long weekend, now in its 49th year.

The Stealers won 3 games and lost 3 games against a very competitive field of teams from around Australia, finishing in the middle of the field of 11.

The Stealers squad comprises a group of core players who have been competing at Tamworth for the last 6 years, and this year welcomed rookies Gavin Gillett and Kevin “Rowdy” Yates, as well as the talented ring-in from the Illawarra, Pat Brienen.

While they didn’t bring home the trophy, the team’s performance was very good, with a team batting average of .453. Matt Dolan won honours for slugging with three home runs and also drove in 14 runs over the weekend. Individual batting stats were:

Matt Dolan BA .625/OBP .611
Pat Brienen BA .615/OBP .688
Scott Clohessy BA .563/OBP .650
Graham Solling  BA .533/OBP .529
Glen Hurley BA .500/OBP .600
Shaun Joffee BA .462/OBP .500
Rob Scott BA .444/OBP .583
Kian Mohammadieh BA .333/OBP .444
Kevin Yates BA .333/OBP .529
Gavin Gillett BA .308/OBP .308
Zac Scott BA .267/OBP .313

Matt Dolan just pipped Gavin Gillett with the pitching honours – Matt’s Total Runs Average was 6.00 against Gav’s 6.32.

Tamworth Invitational Baseball Carnival is a great event held in the capital of country music, with divisions ranging from the elite A-graders all the way through to F-grade, with 46 teams competing in total. Next year is the organisation’s 50th anniversary, and they are hoping to get 50 teams to compete.