Andrew Russell

Don't panic just yet Waverley fans, last year's triple-crown winner Andrew Russell made the transition to shortstop during the winter and by all reports could prove to be more than adept at pairing with Glen Mascoll up the middle.
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Waverley's offense will again rely heavily on centerfielder Jared Hodges (.329), catcher Grant Karlsen (.413) and last year's triple-crown winner Russell (.451, 5HR, 35RBI) to produce runs.
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Andrew Russell (Waverley) - "When he's playing right for Waverley, you are holding your runners. It's as simple as that.
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Andrew Russell (Waverley)

One more time, I'd rather pay tribute to TEAM BATTING as an overview of Waverley's offence in this game, and most others this season, but how can you ignore 'Rusty' Russell's 3-4 ... YAWN! ... this guy is like the Durocell bunny when it comes to hitting a baseball ... does he EVER give up!?
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What supporters may not have noticed is that Russell has steadily been refining a stronger body under that Wildcats uniform and if you happen to bump into him these days it's a bit like bumping a piece of steel. As many sporting stars have said over the years, "the harder you work the luckier you get" and this is certainly true for Andrew Russell who deserves his top billing as Waverley's batting Champion this season with a monster team high .451 average complimented by a jolting .769 slugging percentage. It is hard to remember more than a couple of games when Andrew did not bring his wrecking ball to the diamond because he was nothing short of merciless on some of the best pitchers Victoria has to offer. When you add his faultless defence and powerful arm in the outfield to his resume, it is no wonder that Andrew Russell is already an established Claxton Shield player and, with his attitude and ability, there should be no limit to what he might achieve in coming years. What we do expect is for this Championship winning hero to continue to forge his career as one of Waverley's greats by the time he retires! A Claxton Shield winner's medal and a Div One Championship medal is a nice reward as a symbol of his success this summer and it should bring a degree of satisfaction for an outstanding young player.
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ANDREW RUSSELL

Andrew Russell

What more can you say that hasn't already been said about Andrew Russell this year? This guy is simply hitting everything like he has some sort of hatred for baseball manufacturers! 'Rusty's' first at bat resulted in a MONSTER home run, if only the baseball diamond had been three dimensional and if they counted pop-ups that went 600ft into the stratosphere. Then, with a little encouragement, or was that sibling slanging, from his brother Michael (fresh off the navy ship Newcastle) that he hadn't delivered a hit from a couple of plate appearances, Andrew simply went about raking three hits for the rest of the game, including a spanking RBI triple to the most remote part of the Thames Boulevard venue ... ho hum!
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And, if you think that there may be a hole to be found in the outfield, forget it, our Wildcats boast an outfield that would certainly be among the best at Claxton Shield level with Geduld, Hodges and Russell often making the task look a lot easier than it actually is.
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While we have had plenty of balanced offence this season, there is still quite a familiar ring to the names of the most productive hitters lately. 'Rusty' Russell finally took a breather from dominating the offensive text last week, but he was back in the thick of it in this game with one of his two hits thrashed for a triple to right field.
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And, on a rare quiet day for him, if you could call it that, 'Rusty' Russell's lashing line drive to the left field fence put some welcome padding on the scoreboard for the home team.
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The Waverley Wildcats would welcome back home the presence of Claxton Shield medal winners Andrew Russell, Daniel Berg and Donavon Hendricks.
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Hey folks, we LOVE our "signed guys" like 'Bergy' and 'Jimbo' who are inked by the Minnesota Twins, but we feel equally aggrieved by the apparent lack of respect shown to our un-signed and/or recently cut YOUNG men like 'Rusty' Russell and Grant Karlsen ... not to mention that 24yo has-been Jarrod Hodges who has been unavailable.
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Andy Russell, as always, smacked everything hard at the Claxton Shield in Perth, but just to show that this was not another fluke, he came out swinging the timber again today. The always unassuming Russell came into this game batting .429 with a team-high 18 RBI's. He crunched a ball for a very long out onto the distant left-field warning track at Malvern for a DEEP fly out his first time up ... tough luck Andrew! But no, don't EVER feel sorry for this guy ... his next two plate appearances yielded thumping home runs that rocketed over the same left field fence for a game dominating EIGHT personal RBI's. Write down that address ...
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It was a case of "same old, same old" for our splendid 2006/07 pitcher 'Nolan' Ryan Fisher and our premier pre-Christmas hitter Andrew 'Rusty' Russell who doesn't seem to have missed a beat over the festive break.
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Russell seems determined to challenge the recent lofty batting averages of his former outfield partner Jarrod 'Hammer' Hodges who complimented his own hitting with some timely RBI's yesterday. 'Rusty' doubles ... 'Hodgo' drives him in ... it made the difficult job of scoring runs in baseball look elementary!
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If there is a better two-three punch than Russell and Hodges in Australian baseball I will be very surprised ... these guys are a genuine "wrecking crew".
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I saw Andy Russell crush a couple of hits at Newport while carrying a common social illness that, in the words of his father Jimmy, made his eyes look as small as some sort of holes in the snow that I just didn't quite hear exactly?
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Hodges (3-3), Russell (2D) and Berg (HR) were ably supported by our other multi-hitters Ian 'Ichiro' Geduld and Anthony 'Rolen' Reinke on this occasion, while I also clearly recall a typically unselfish and superbly executed sac-fly RBI from catcher Grant Karlsen.
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And, yes, I deliberately left out Andrew 'Rusty' Russell who also (YAWN!) connected for another multi-hit game. I'm told that Andrew was more 'Dusty' than 'Rusty' after enjoying the company of his Victorian Aces team mates during their weekend pre-Claxton jaunt in Perth. Apparently a jet-lagged Russell was taking the opportunity for a quiet "recovery session" with his feet up at home when he was phoned with the sobering news that the weather had turned and that he would be required to play. Thankfully 'Rusty' lives just a home run or so distance from the Newport venue and he was able to dash into the fray of the pre-game while still arranging his uniform. It is a measure of his natural talent that he was still able to pry open his eyes wide enough to crush a couple more hits!
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I know that I have been unable to disguise my glowing praise for our unassuming hitting-machine Andrew 'Rusty' Russell lately, but on this occasion I must report the light with the shade ... what a major disappointment it was that he ONLY managed two more hits last night after his 4-4 against the Orioles ... fair dinkum, if you're not careful 'Rusty' your average might drop below .450!! And, while I'm on the subject of quality hitters, I thought that I detected the awakening of a slumbering giant who opened one eyelid and showed a flash of that familiar steely glint in his eye!
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It becomes almost redundant to mention that Andrew 'Rusty' Russell was again the flagship of our inconsistent offence on this day. While most of our batters struggled to impose themselves on Blackburn's pitching, 'Rusty' simply went about his business in his usual unassuming way to show his team mates how it can be done if you don't allow yourself to become rattled or intimidated. Russell, who is now batting over .400 for the season since an error in his statistics was corrected, should have been the game winning hero for Waverley again with his 4-4, including a line drive two-run 'dinger' over right-centrefield ... it just wasn't to be yesterday I'm afraid.
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Next in line would be my current MVP for this season so far, Andrew 'Rusty' Russell who always seems to be at the heart of most Waverley rallies. This level-headed and intelligent young hitter has the marvellous ability to bat the same way regardless of the game situation and he never seems to be fazed by the pressures of playing from behind, or to be distracted when the team is in front.
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Husband Paul Tierney is known to all in the baseball community as one of the really "good guys" in the game, while talented sons Andrew and David are not only fine players but very nice lads too ... with apologies to anyone else in the family that I may not know personally.
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It would not surprise anyone to see the quality bats of Russell, Hodges and Reinke also among the safe hitters.
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I can skip past our offensive effort very quickly by simply mentioning that our other safe-hitters for the day were the consistent producers Andrew Russell, Anthony Reinke and Adam Kim ... with only Reinke and Dawes connecting for extra base hits with a double apiece.
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Just to contradict myself, one of the most likely sources who shouldered much of the offence yet again was the ultimate, unassuming "team guy" Andrew 'Rusty' Russell who had two of the most important hits in this game. He got the ball rolling for Waverley with our first hit, then he later delivered a HUGE 2RBI triple to really put us on the road to victory.