Inoke Niubalavu

Inoke Seru Niubalavu

• Born May 9, 1983

Biographical Information

Inoke Niubalavu has played for the Fijian national team.

He attended the MLB Australian Academy in 2002. In the 2003 South Pacific Games, he was Fiji's top player. He was 9 for 17 with six runs and a RBI. He led the event in average (.010 ahead of Ronald Peau); Petero Turaga was Fiji's next-best regular at .250 and none of thjeir other players had more than three hits. He had twice as many runs as their next player, Apenisa Nawalu. For the Games, he tied Jim Reyes, Leon Panuelo Jr. and Stanley Filiaga for 3rd in hits (behind Peau and Henry Santos III) as a bright spot on a winless team.

By 2009, he was Development Officer for the Fiji Islands Baseball Association. In the 2011 Pacific Games, he was back on the field for Fiji. On September 5, he scored Fiji's only run in both games that day, against New Caledonia's Jacques Levy (driven in by Tavo Sorovakatini) and against Elton Santos of the champion Northern Mariana Islands (driven in by Emosi Gotegote). The shortstop hit .133/.350/.133 for the event with five runs and three steals (in three tries) in six games, fielding .838. He was 1 for 3 with two runs and a RBI in their win over American Samoa in the 5th/6th place game. He led Fiji in walks (4) and runs (one ahead of Joeli McGoon and Noa Delaivuna). For the Games, he was on the leaderboard for runs (tied for 5th with Reyes, Avery Amos, Reagan Sidoi, Jacques Boucheron and Rodrick Blanco), walks (tied for 3rd, behind Lieb Bells and Christophe Jajha), steals (tied for 6th), total chances (37, 7th), assists (17, 4th) and errors (6, tied for 1st with Sailiilemalo Laolagi and O'Leary Ise).

Niubalavu managed Fiji's team in the 2019 U-12 Baseball World Cup, the country's debut in a global event. He was also working on bringing women's softball back to Fiji after over a decade absence. He was secretary-general of the Fiji Islands Baseball and Softball Association. He managed Fiji in the 2022 Pacific Mini-Games.