Australia prepares for last series against China - women

[Al's Fastball News]

Received: 4/17/07 9:06:04 PM 
From:  "DiAnne Lilburn" <dianne.lilburn(at)softball.org.au> 

   
Subject:  Australia prepares for last series against China  


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Media Release

18 April 2007

 

 

Australia prepares for last series againstChina

 

 

Australia leads China after the completion of the first three
game seriesof the China Australia Challenge which took place
over the weekend in Brisbane. 

 

Blacktown Olympic Park will play host to some of theworld’s best
softballers on Friday and Saturday night as Australia tries to
keep a hold of the seriesafter winning two of the three games
played sofar.        

 

Head coach Fabian Barlow was pleased with Australia’s overall
performance andwill be looking to improve the team’s performance
for the Sydney series. 

 

“The performance overall was acceptable consideringthese players
played their last game of softball on the final weekend ofNational
League nearly 2 months ago, so there was always going to be an
elementof rustiness by us on the opening weekend of this series.


 

“I have no doubt China will come out stronger thisweekend so
we will have to significantly improve all aspects of our game
and bemore clinical, particularly when run scoring opportunities
presentthemselves.”

 

First time Australian player, Jodie Bowering (Qld) made astrong
impact in her first international debut hitting two home runs
for theseries, the first in the opening game. 

 

An error free performance by Australian short stop DanielleStewart
(Qld) helped Australiadominate in defence and hold the Chinese
batters. Stewart was named the MostValuable Player of the Brisbaneseries,
playing in all three games and scoring two runners home for Australia.


 

Felicity Witt (NSW) was good on the pitching mound for Australia.
In the second game of the series,Witt threw the complete game,
which went to an extra inning, a tie breaksituation, but was
unable to get the win due to Australia’s inability to score its
tie breaker runners.

 

Australia will be looking to give players as manyopportunities
as possible during the three games to demonstrate their abilitiesin
this series as the Olympic team selections fast approach. 

 

“This series is a great opportunity for the players toshow what
they can do against the fourth ranked team in the world, plus
we arepicking the Aussie Spirit team to defend its Canada Cup
title at the completionof this weekend so they have every reason
to play well,” concluded MrBarlow. 

 

As build up for this series, the China team will play the NSW
State team as well as the Australian Under 19Women’s team before
taking on Australia. Australia will play at 7.30pm on Friday
and a double-header at5.00 and 7.30pm on Saturday to conclude
the series. 

 

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

 

Fabian Barlow, Head Coach

Players

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

_____________________________________
DiAnne Lilburn
NationalCommunications 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 www.softball.org.au

_____________________________________________________________________________
Did you know that Australia is the world's number one softball
nation?  
World number three - Open Women'steam (Aussie Spirit), Silver
Medallist (Athens, 2004), BronzeMedallists (Sydney 2000 and Atlanta
1996). 
World number one - Under 19 Men'steam (Aussie Colts), three consecutive
World Championship titles. 
World number three - Open Men'steam (Aussie Steelers) and Under
19 Women's team (Aussie Pride).

 

 

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