Napoleon-Sebastopol has lured some outside talent ahead of the 2020-21 Ballarat Cricket Association season.
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The club has welcomed youngsters Jacob Pawlowicz and Taeje Baker from the Victorian Premier Cricket ranks in Melbourne.
Pawlowicz will begin the season with Naps-Sebas before returning to the Greenvale Kangaroos once metropolitan competitions recommence after the COVID-19 shutdown. Baker however, who played for Northcote last season, might stay for the whole year depending on employment.
Pawlowicz said it was exciting to be at the club.
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"I've never played cricket in Ballarat so it will be good to get a fresh look at how they play cricket up there," he said.
"I've heard it's a good level of cricket and I think it will be a good chance to play some quality players."
Pawlowicz, 19, played most of his junior cricket in Bacchus Marsh before breaking into the premier ranks. As a left-arm orthodox bowler, he played every game for Greenvale in the premier seconds last season and made one start in the club's first team.
He will enter the BCA on the back of a career year.
"I was pretty happy with how I wen't," he said.
"I was the leading wicket-taker in the seconds and getting a debut in the ones was a big achievement for me personally."
Pawlowicz batted in the lower order last season, but will likely bat a bit higher in the BCA. He said he hoped to use the opportunity with Naps-Sebas to improve other areas of his game.
"Hopefully I can give them a bit of a kickstart at the start of the season," he said.
"The club is doing be a favour by letting me jump on board so I just want to play to the best of my ability."
While the club hoped to play Pawlowicz in first grade, new coach Dan Davies said it would depend on if they could fit him in under the BCA points system.
Otherwise, Davies said he might have to play in the seconds.
Baker meanwhile, who is from Ballarat originally, is a batsman and wicket keeper and might potentially bat in the top order. He played premier fourth grade for Northcote last season, averaging eleven runs a match.
Pawlowicz and Baker aren't the only players to come to the BCA this season from the premier ranks. Last week The Courier reported former Victorian Bushranger Blake Thomson would begin the season with East Ballarat.
The top-order bat compiled 719 runs at an average close to 60 for Melbourne in the first grade ranks in 2019-20.
He will play here in Ballarat before potentially returning to Melbourne in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition, where he has played the last seven years.
"It's just while coronavirus has slowed everything down, so I'm just going to be playing back here until Melbourne cricket starts back up," he said.