The capital punches well above its weight when it comes to men’s softball, with nearly two thirds of Australia’s world champion national side, the Steelers, from the ACT.
Some of the sport’s stars of tomorrow were on show at the Hawker International Softball Centre on Sunday, with an ACT boys under-15 all-stars team taking on a visiting New Zealand under-15 side.
It was the second time the Kiwis had made the trip to Canberra, and ACT Softball president Kim McGovern said it was a great opportunity for the best local juniors to test their skills against high quality opposition.
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”[The New Zealanders] are very good … it’s good for our boys to get that competition,” McGovern said. ”Last weekend we travelled to Sydney and we won every game by 20 runs, so it was no competition for us.”
It was valuable diamond time for at least one player, 14-year-old Josh McGovern, who will represent Australia at under-17 level at the world championships in June. With the local softball competition finished, McGovern was one of a number of Canberra boys who turned up for the four-game series having already played rugby league in the morning, a feat which impressed opposition coach Bevan Matene.