Laying claim to the best batting average in the Carolina League since June 10, Sox first and third basemen, Stefan Welch has quickly become an essential part of the Salem Red Sox clubhouse.
Since joining the team on June 6, the Australian native has found his niche here in the Roanoke Valley with Salem, where he claims is very similar to his home back in Adelaide, Australia.
Comfort has been the key! Well, at least it has been for Welch, who teammates call “Welchy”. To get to know the “mate from down unda” a bit better, I sat down with him prior to Friday’s game against Frederick and the man was nothing short of a class act.
Here’s what Welch had to say:
ON GROWING UP IN AUSTRALIA:
“Australia is awesome, I love it. It’s very relaxed, very chill. I love hanging out with mates, playing sports, going to the beach and that kind of thing. It’s fun, I really do love it there.”
ON HIS SIBLING:
“I have a younger sister and she’s actually pretty tall. She does rowing and she’s pretty into rowing and has been into it since I’ve been over here. She’s pretty good!”
ON WHAT HE DID FOR FUN GROWING UP:
“Just hanging out with mates. When we were younger we would just ride our bikes through our area, playing sports, go to the beach, go to the pool. Me and my best mate used to play whiffle ball baseball all the time in his backyard and that brings back some pretty good memories, ha-ha”
ON HIS “HIGH SCHOOL” YEARS:
“We actually didn’t have a baseball team at school. Baseball isn’t really that big back home so there’s more soccer, cricket and Australian football. We play sports during the school hours so, if you play sports you play pretty much to get out of class. So we played everything we could like badminton, volleyball, whatever we could do to get out of class.”
ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN U.S./SALEM AND AUSTRIALIA:
“Honestly, it’s pretty similar. My fiancé is with me here as well and we both have said it’s very relaxed and have a lot of great people here. Probably one of the main things is that we don’t have as many fast-food chains at home as they do here. But, that’s the only difference I see, we have a couple beaches as well but the people are great and it’s very relaxed.”
ON THE BIGGEST CULTURAL DIFFERENCES:
“I think it’s just how big everything is here. The first time I came over here all the sports blew my mind, just how big even the college and high school sports are. There’s like eight different sports channels which when I came over I was like this is the heavens, this is awesome. Sports are big back at home but we didn’t have as many channels dedicated to it and universities are pretty much just for study, there’s no sports attached to them or anything. So that’s the biggest difference how much bigger everything is here.”
ON CHOOSING THE US OR AUSTRALIA, IF HE HAD TO:
“Probably back home just because it’s always home and all my friends and family are there.”
ON PLAYING IN THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC:
“I loved it. It was awesome. Probably one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, it was so much fun. Especially the first game in Tai Won when we played against the Chinese Taipei. So it was their home stadium and they had like 25,000 people just like screaming fans it was the most fun I’ve ever had but we lost unfortunately but it was still something I’ll always remember.”
ON HIS WALK-UP SONG:
“It’s the Hilltop Hoods. They’re like a hip-hop group from the same place I’m from back at home and actually Emily chose it for me. They have good music!”
ON WHAT CHANGED FROM HIS EARLY STRUGGLES TO HIS RECENT SUCCESS:
“I’m not sure really. I’ve just been working with Nelson (the hitting coach) trying to keep things simple and trying to find it. I was struggling pretty badly with Pittsburg in double A this year and I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be able play and luckily things have been turning around.”
ON HITTING .424 AT HOME AND PLAYING AT HOME:
“Oh, I love it here. We’re (Welch & his fiancé) driving here the other day and we were thinking that we could live here, saying how nice it is. We love it. It’s awesome. I haven’t been able to see too much but just the place is nice, we stay at Pebble Creek and the whole set up is just so nice. We’re going to go downtown on the next off day and check out downtown Roanoke.”
ON BEING HONORED AS CAROLINA LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE WEEK, JULY 8-14:
“Yeah definitely, it’s always nice to get that recognition I suppose. But, I’m just trying to help the team win games and ultimately win a championship here. That’s my ultimate dream.”
ON STAYING IN PLAYOFF CONTINGENCY:
“I think we just need to keep doing what were doing. We’ve been playing great and lost a couple close games but overall we’ve been playing and pitching great, swinging and defense has been great. I think we just need to keep taking it a game at a time and hopefully be there in September.”
