Baseballer to swap Heat for Beach

"Batter up" is the call Secret Harbour teenager Tomas Swinson looks forward to hearing as he steps up to the plate to his first game of college baseball in Los Angeles in the coming weeks.

The 18-year-old former Rockingham Rams Little League and Perth Heat player found out he was accepted on a partial athletic scholarship to Long Beach City College last month.

He is set to arrive in Southern California this week, meet his new Long Beach Legends team mates and begin training ahead of his physical science studies starting in August.

Growing up in the Pilbara, Swinson was encouraged to play sport from a young age with his four siblings and, at just three years old, was constantly filling in on his older brother and sister's T-ball teams.

When the family moved from the desert to the coast, Swinson joined the Secret Harbour Pirates and then moved to little league with the Rams, and in the winter honed his hand-eye co-ordination skills further on the football field with the SH Dockers.

After just one year with the Rams, at 13 years old Swinson was moved up to the under-17s.

A year on, the club made it to the competition's State level, which meant the club was in a position to recruit imported talents such as mentor Chris Eckley from USA, who also coached the under-14s Perth Heat squad.

"He was really focused on the junior teams and offering additional training locally," Swinson said.

"At the time I was unaware there was a State team until at our end-of-season presentations I was introduced to the Perth Heat manager Steve Fish.

"Steve told me Chris told him a lot about me and then invited me to attend the Diamond Academy held every winter, which clashed with footy so I had to make a choice.

"I was confused - I loved my footy, and still do, but at the same time I was enjoying baseball."

He tried out for both sports' under-16 teams, but was only accepted to the Heat, where he represented the State in the national Championships three years in a row, taking home a gold and two silver medals.

In 2013, Swinson said he was accepted into the Perth Heat Colts junior varsity team, which travelled in the USA for six weeks, learning about the lifestyle of a Major League baseball player.

The year after he was accepted to the varsity team and travelled the United States for eight weeks.

"The whole trip is about gaining game time and experience," he said.

"It was very crazy, we were always on the road with one-night stop-overs. We stayed with a host family at times, even though their children were our opposition. I made lots of friends, who are looking forward to seeing me."

Swinson said Long Beach was a two-year junior college and after graduation he hoped to gain another four-year scholarship, ideally at Texas Tech University.

"I'd love a career in Major League Baseball but I'm going to America for the experience and to gain a qualification," he said.

"I wanted a back-up plan rather than just being drafted straight to a team."