A trio of baseballers from the Byford Bushrangers have just hit the biggest home run of their young lives.
Brodie Chesshire (11), Nate Lawrence (10), and Luke Maughan (10), live and breathe baseball.
“It’s exciting, it’s fast, it’s fun,” Brodie said.
“It always keeps us on our toes,” Nate said.
“I like hitting dingers against people. And the feeling of making a diving catch is better than anything,” Luke said.
Between them, they have a combined 17 years’ experience in diamond sports.
They train up to six days a week, sacrificing birthday parties, school holidays, and days out – all for the love of the game.
“But all of that hard work has paid off,” Luke said.
Over the holiday break, the boys all headed over to the Gold Coast to participate in the Down Under Winter Classic – their first inter-state tournament.
While the boys all felt a little off their game in Queensland, their talent, grit and skill clearly shone through, because all three were headhunted by scouts.
Only a couple of days into their tournament, the boys were notified they’d been given early selection into the Aussie Drop Bears to play at the 2024 Cal Ripken World Series in the United States next month.
“Mum found the email in her spam folder while we were at dinner. I ran all through Milky Lane screaming,” Luke said. “Mum was screaming too.”
“I think the whole apartment might have heard me when I found out,” Nate said.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I just can’t believe it’s happened.”
The significance of this selection cannot be overstated; an older colleague was selected for the same tournament a couple of years back, and got scouted for another tournament whilst there. He now plays U16 for the state.
And then there’s Travis Bazzana, who made Australian baseball history on Friday when he inked a $15 million deal with the Cleveland Guardians as their overall top pick – the first Aussie to ever be a no. 1. Bazzana (21) also played the Cal Ripken World Series when he was their age.
While their selection is not unprecedented, only 12 to 14 young hopefuls around the country were given the nod at this year’s Down Under Winter Classic – so to have three from Byford is, in fact, a huge coup.
And the three amigos have high hopes for their time in the states.
“If we were scouted and picked for another tournament, that would be pretty good,” Brodie said.
“And if we won the tournament, I’d be screaming all the way home on the plane,” Luke said.
“I’m really excited to show ‘em what I got. I just want to be like my dad – he played softball for Australia, you know.”
Robert Maughan has been privately coaching the boys in pitching and batting for the past six months, giving them an edge.
And their parents couldn’t be prouder of their success.
“They’ve worked so hard for this,” Shari Maughan said. “There was so much competition in Queensland, so we were preparing ourselves for disappointment.”
“It’s an amazing achievement – to be so young and have this opportunity before them,” Charlie Morgan said.
“And for the three of them to go together is just amazing,” Nicki Lawrence said.
“This could really set them on the path to something bigger.”
But success often comes with a price; it’ll cost around $8K each for the boys to go to America to compete. And that’s before you factor in the costs of their families to accompany them.
“We were so excited at the news, and then reality set in: ‘oh god, how are we going to pay for this?’,” Shari said.
The families are currently fundraising like mad, each with their own GoFundMe page. You can donate to Brodie here, Nate here, and Luke here.
The Cal Ripken World Series will run in Crown Point, Indiana, from August 3 to 18.
