By JARROD POTTER
Noble Park Secondary College student Mitchell Wilcox is primed for a big year on the baseball mound after an impressive schoolboys’ campaign.
Wilcox, 17, recently returned from a national schoolboys’ baseball tournament with the School Sport Victoria (SSV) under-17 team.
Heading to Western Australia at the start of the month, Wilcox’s SSV side finished third in the country, ending up behind Western Australia and New South Wales after the initial rounds and just missing out on the gold medal match.
Wilcox is a dab hand at Baseball Victoria state sides, but making the schoolboys team was particularly pleasing as it has a dual focus.
“It felt good – ’cause it’s the same bunch of guys I’ve done the last couple of state teams with and the boys are really good to be around,” Wilcox said.
“Especially in national tournaments and the whole team really gelled together.
“It was definitely a lot more of a learning experience ’cause the school program is more at developing you as a person and a player.”
The result wasn’t ideal for the Victorians, but Wilcox was pleased with his individual efforts on the mound.
“We came third… it wasn’t the result we were after – we should’ve been in the gold medal game – but we didn’t play well enough in the last couple of days,” Wilcox said.
“On the second last day the top three teams play against each other to get into the final and on that day we lost against WA and New South Wales.
“I threw pretty well – threw for one game against WA, threw six innings and didn’t give up any runs.”
Wilcox features for Dingley in the Dandenong Baseball Association’s winter competition, while turning out for Sandringham in the summer.
He’s currently bouncing between Dingley’s firsts and seconds and has relished his opportunities at the senior level so far in 2016.
He hopes the future includes a stint in the states as Wilcox wants to try his luck in the college baseball ranks as well as finish his junior baseball career in style with the BV under-18 team.
“At the end of this year I want to make the under-18 state team again, but looking forward I want to get into a college in America,” Wilcox said.
