FIVE girls from the Porepunkah Panthers were part of the undefeated Under 16s North Eastern Team at the 2024 All-Girls Winter Invitational in June.

The Porepunkah Panthers players who competed were Ayla McCallum, Makiah McCallum, Samara McCallum, Paige Anders and Sophie Anders.

Makiah said that this year was a huge improvement on the other years she competed in the tournament.

"I thought it was super amazing that we took out the win considering the past two years we didn’t play so well,” she said.

“I can’t explain how happy we all were, we were absolutely thrilled.”

All the girls initially started playing baseball because of their dads taking them to games when they were younger and eventually falling in love with the game.

Sophie said her favourite part of the game was the friendships and connection to the community she has built.

“I think it’s really important to do a sport and be around heaps of other people because you make connections with people all around and it just it gives you something to do and something to look forward to,” she said.

This translated to the North East team where Sophie said they really bonded together.

“I think from all the trainings we did with all the girls and we kind of knew everyone quite well and then staying together at the camp site it brought everyone really close,” she said.

“We knew one another so well that we kind of just meshed together as a team and it made it so much easier.”

Makiah said her favourite part of the sport was being on the field playing and that she felt proud to represent the North East.

“When you play, it doesn’t get boring because it doesn’t matter how much you’re winning by or losing by, you still get to field the ball and you still get to bat, it’s very equal among the games,” she said.

“It felt so good to represent the North East especially since we’re such a small part of Victoria not really noticed so it was really good to be seen.”

Sophie said her and Paige hope to continue playing baseball in the future and were proud to represent an all-girls team.

“I think it's something we’ll both be continuing in the future whether it’s this club and this level or at a higher level I think it’s just good to keep in contact with the sport because it’s fun,” she said.

“I think that having a girl’s league just in general is so important.

“I feel like there aren’t as many sports such as baseball because it’s a sport most people would deem to be an all-boys sport.

“Having girls all around enjoying a sport, that we can all share it with each other, is just something really special.”

Ayla also hopes to continue baseball in the future and has played in a number of other state tournaments and plans to try out for the Barclay Cup state representative team.