Hendriks takes heed

as posted here

24th January 2009, 14:30 WST

In his early teens, Liam Hendriks was told he would not realise his goal of playing professional baseball unless he toughened up mentally and physically.

Now in his third season with the Minnesota Twins, the 19-year-old believes the comment by respected Australian coach Tony Harris was a wake-up call which has contributed to his development.

Hendriks will lead Perth Heat’s pitching assault when they play in the 75th edition of the Claxton Shield final at Baseball Park in Thornlie starting on February 6. Perth ended their regular season with a threegame series sweep over Victoria at home two weeks ago but won’t know their final opponent until tomorrow when Victoria and NSW finish their semifinal series in Melbourne.

Hendriks, the son of former West Perth footballer Geoff Hendriks, has spent the past two years at Rookie-Ball level but after an impressive Claxton Shield campaign will be pushing for a spot on the national team for the World Baseball Classic in Mexico in March. He made his Australian debut in last year’s Olympic qualifying tournament in Taiwan.

But with Australia expected to field a full-strength line-up with some bigleague regulars, competition for playing spots will be tough.

“We didn’t have all our best players in the pre-Olympic tournament but the world’s best players will all be available for the World Baseball Classic and I’m pleased just to be considered among those players this early in my career,” Hendriks said.

He had surgery late last year and eased his way into the Claxton Shield season, finishing with a 3-1 record and earning a run average of 3.05, the best for Perth Heat.

Hendriks started in a relief role and finished as a starter and from here the pressure will increase even more as Perth try to win consecutive titles.

Perth have been without national player Scott Mitchinson, who has not played in Australia this summer after an injury-marred season with the Oakland Athletics in California.

Another of the Heat’s pitchers, Cameron Lamb, has not played all season and Jason Smit has been unavailable for the past month. This leaves the door open for Hendriks.

“He’s got decent velocity with good location with three pitches. He can throw for strike just about all the time,” coach Don Kyle said.

Young pitcher toughens up to join Claxton assault

GENE STEPHAN

as posted here