Simone Wearne (born 5 December 1980 in Melbourne) was a pitcher for the Australia women's national baseball team. At the 2006 Women's Baseball World Cup she was named in the All-World team as a starting pitcher. She was a member of the Australian team which won the 2002 Women's World Baseball Series, and was named co-MVP of the tournament along with First Baseman Sue Fairhurst. She is the sister of professional baseball infielder Scott Wearne. She is a player and coach for Melbourne based baseball club the Springvale Lions (women's program). She was coach of the Women's National Team from 2013 - 2018, and has coached Victoria Blue and South Australia at the Women's National Championships.
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Its name refers to an urban agglomeration of 2,080 km2 (800 sq mi), comprising a metropolitan area with 31 municipalities, and is also the common name for its city centre. The city occupies much of the coastline of Port Phillip bay and spreads into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 5 million, and its inhabitants are referred to as "Melburnians".
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and the closer.
The Australian women's national baseball team, nicknamed the Emeralds, represents Australia in international women's baseball tournaments and competitions. The team is controlled by the Australian Baseball Federation, which is represented in the Baseball Confederation of Oceania (BCO). They are the only team in Oceania to be formally ranked by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), and are the 3rd ranked women's baseball team in the world. The Emeralds have been in existence since 2001, when the first ever squad was selected from the 2001 National Women’s Championships, held in Sydney. They compete in the biennial IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup.
Simone coached the 18U Australian Women's Baseball Team to a silver medal at the Phoenix Cup Women's Baseball Tournament in Hong Kong in 2013, before leading the Emeralds to a bronze medal finish at the 2014 Women's Baseball World Cup in Japan.
In 2012 Simone became the first female and youngest person ever inducted into the Baseball Australia Hall of Fame.
