States best to meet in Blacktown (AU)

[fastball]

Subject: States best to meet in Blacktown 
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2006 15:56:39 +1100 
From: "DiAnne Lilburn" <dianne.lilburn(at)softball.org.au> 



Media Release
3 March 2006
 
States best to meet in Blacktown
 
The best male softballers from around Australia will do battle
at the Australian Open Men’s Fastpitch Championship, John Reid
Shield, in Blacktown, New South Wales from 5-11 March 2006. 
 
Players who represented Australia at the recent Commonwealth
Men’s Championship in Melbourne will have the upper hand at state
level, taking the experience of playing against the world’s best,
in what was some of the most aggressive softball Australia has
seen.  
 
The past two years has seen Victoria and ACT go head-to-head
in the finals with Victoria coming out on top on both occasions.

 
Victoria will look to the experience of Kris Kiefel, back-to-back
winner of the Most Valuable Player, Paul Maisey, Australia’s
most capped player and who announced his retirement from international
competition in January, to lead the team. 
 
ACT will be hard to beat with the strong arm of Jeff Goolagong,
the experience of Michael Tanner, arguably the best lead-off
batter in the world and the two best young pitchers in the country
in Andrew Kirkpatrick and Adam Folkard. 
 
New South Wales will have the advantage of home ground knowledge
and support as they go into the championship with a young side,
six of which are in their first year at Open level. Brother’s
Joel, arguably the world’s best switch hitter, and Travis Southam,
who debuted for Australia and at Open level this year, will be
a team to watch.  
 
Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia won’t be without
their chances either with Western Australia boasting five Australian
players and Queensland with the experience of Terry Downes and
others. 
 
It all shapes up to be an exciting and intriguing week of softball!!

 
The first five days of the championship will be played as a double
round robin format with the top four teams qualifying for the
finals which will be played over the last two days of competition.
The grand final is scheduled for Saturday 11 March at 7.30pm.
 
The championship will be hosted by the New South Wales Softball
Association in conjunction with Softball Australia and results
and live play-by-play match reports will be available on Softball
Australia’s website at www.softball.org.au. For the final day,
Olympian Stacey Porter will be providing specialist net commentary.

 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
____________________________________
DiAnne Lilburn
National Communications Coordinator
Softball Australia
Suite 4, Ground Floor
38-40 Prospect Street
Box Hill, Victoria 3128
 
T: +61 3 9890 8200
F: +61 3 9890 8295
M: +61 (0) 405 509 674
 
For more information visit http://www.softball.org.au

 

From: "DiAnne Lilburn" <dianne.lilburn(at)softball.org.au>
_____________________________________________________________________________
Did you know that Australia is the world's number one softball
nation?  
World number two - Open Women's team (Aussie Spirit), Silver
Medallist (Athens, 2004), Bronze Medallists (Sydney 2000 and
Atlanta 1996). 
World number one - Under 19 Men's team (Aussie Colts), three
consecutive World Championship titles. 
World number three - Open Men's team (Aussie Steelers) and Under
19 Women's team (Aussie Pride).
 
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