Canberra baseball duo chase green and gold World Cup dream together

The pair started playing together around eight years of age, and also share a strong connection as a pitcher and catcher for the Ainslie Gungahlin Bears.

So it's fitting as the ACT selections for the national team junior camp that the 17-year-olds have a shot at wearing the green and gold together too.

Between April 16-24, a total of 50 of Australia's best young baseball players will gather at Narrabundah Ballpark and the Australian Institute of Sport with spots in the national junior squad for the Under-18 Baseball World Cup in the USA up for grabs.

And Lyddiard and Janse van Rensburg want to be there for the event in September in Florida.

"Just getting to that point, with all the work that we've been putting in this year and last year, going over to the States playing baseball, it would just mean the world. It would be really awesome," Lyddiard said.

"We've been working hard, sweating, bleeding, so it'd be satisfying to get to play there, but also for the people who helped us like our coaching staff in Canberra and our parents," Janse van Rensburg added.

"We do really early mornings at the gym, we stay out here training after school till late three days a week, and then play games on the weekend, so we do a lot.

"It would be the coolest thing ever to get into the squad with Ryan, one of my good friends."

Janse van Rensburg was led to baseball in extraordinary circumstances, after the South African-born catcher had a brain tumour removed as a child.

The surgery was successful but his family were told by doctors that playing rugby was no longer an option, and the non-contact sport that was suggested to him was baseball.

Since then, he hasn't looked back.

"I played it and just fell in love with the sport," he said. "It was scary but I can't complain because it brought me to baseball."

For young athletes like these it's been a tough trot lately with the COVID-19 pandemic limiting opportunities for elite development in recent years, especially in a sport that has its premier competitions - in college and the pros - in the USA.

Additionally being based in Canberra puts them further outside the radar of potential scouting.

That's what makes this national junior camp in Canberra even more valuable, and they'll be doing everything they can to attract the attention of coaches.

"I'm just going to try and throw as hard as I can, try and field as best I can, and have the right mindset," Lyddiard, an infielder and pitcher, said.

"Getting spotted is hard, especially in Canberra. Not many people come out to watch games, so with this opportunity, you've got to take it."

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