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First Pitch Strike

Baseball Victoria
26 November 2015

Like every baseball game, Jennie Moloney’s remarkable journey began with a first pitch. 

The year was 1976 and Jennie had decided to take up scoring for the Williamstown Baseball Club. 

Turns out she was a hit. And she has been scoring Wolves baseball ever since. 

But she was too talented to stay just on the club level. Soon the Australian National League—forerunner to the today’s Australian Baseball League—came calling and she kept the book (both at home and on the road) for the Melbourne Monarchs from 1992 to 1996. 

In 1996 she rose to Level 2 accreditation for the Victorian Baseball Association Scorers and attained Level 3 the next year. The Claxton Shield National Tournament had her as a scorer in 1999. And with the Summer Olympics on the horizon, she started on her path to world-wide renown, gaining International Baseball Federation accreditation in 2000, just in time to score games for the IBAF Intercontinental Cup and, of course, the Sydney Olympics. 

After scoring at the IBAF World Cup in Taiwan in 2001, Jennie embarked on her biggest year yet. In 2002, she achievedCouncil of Australian Baseball Scorers (CABS) Level 5 scoring accreditation and began her stint as the Scoring Director for Baseball Victoria, which she held for five years. She also was the official scorer for the Under 18 National Championships and the Claxton Shield, while somehow also finding the time to score the International Women’s Championships. 

Seventeen years after that first pitch, Williamstown bestowed upon her the highest honour: Life Membership. 

Not one to rest on her laurels, she then worked as the official scorer for the Under 18 AAA National Championships from 2003-06. 

More official scorer duties were well-earned: Chibe Lotte Marines v. Australia series (2006); Claxton Shield (2007, 2009, and 2010); Under 16 AA National Championships (2009 and 2010); Australia v. Chinese Taipei (2009); and the Under 18 AAA National Championship (2010). 

Closer to home, Jennie has been an official scorer for the Melbourne Aces from 2010 and has scored each ABL All-Star Game from 2012 to 2015. 

But it’s on the international stage where she’s truly hit a grand slam. 

After first participating in a qualifying tournament in Taiwan, she followed up her Olympics in Sydney by getting invited back again eight years later to Beijing. Four years after her second Olympic Games, she scored at the Under 18 AAA World Championships in Korea in 2012; at the University Games in Gwungju (Korea) in 2015; and she just finished scoring the Gold Medal game at the IBAF Premier 12 tournament in Tokyo. 

If all that wasn’t enough, she was also named joint scorer for the Williamstown Baseball Club’s ‘Team of the Century’ in 2008 and honoured as the 2013 Australian Baseball Federation’s Official of the Year in 2013. 

Thirty-nine years and counting, Jennie shows no signs of slowing down. She is one of the most highly credentialed scorers in Australian history. And Victorian baseball is lucky to have her. 

For those interested in getting involved in a fantastic pastime, scorers are always needed through Victoria. Please contact Michele Winther for more information.

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