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 Mens Fastpitch Championship, John Reid Shield, in Blacktown, New South Wales from 5-11 March 2006. Players who represented Australia at the recent Commonwealth Mens Championship in Melbourne will have the upper hand at state level, taking the experience of playing against the worlds 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, Australias 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. Brothers Joel, arguably the worlds 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 wont 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 Australias 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). Als Fastball List *Email: fastball(at)pmihrm.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.AlsFastball.com/ NEWS: http://fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball
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