Easter focus on Women's Nationals
UPDATE (22 April 2017)
Going through the tournament undefeated, Victoria Blue is the 2017 Women's National Baseball Champion after downing Western Australia 12-2 in the final, while New South Wales was equally impressive in earlier securing the Women's Youth Championship 12-4 over Victoria.
See links to the bottom of this page for all details - including game reports by Baseball Australia.
Kingsley Collins
4 April 2017
Rescheduled to the Easter break after previously being held during January, the 2017 Women’s National Championship and the Youth Women’s National Championship will be contested at Canberra’s Narrabundah Ballpark from 14-22 April.
The move to Easter was effected in large part to ease the pressure on administration, coaching staff, players and host associations who were already heavily committed to Under-Aged National Championships during mid to late January.
Drawing eight teams from across Australia, the Women’s Nationals will run for eight days – from 15 to 22 April - while the Youth Women’s event will commence on 14 April and finish on 19 April.
Always a hotly-contested affair between invariably well-prepared squads with an eye to team success and potential individual advancement at elite level, the Women’s Nationals have attracted teams representing Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, New South Wales Country, South Australia, Queensland, Victoria Blue, Victoria White and Western Australia.
A narrow winner over ten-time winner Victoria last time, New South Wales will be seeking to defend its 2016 title during a hectic schedule that will see each team playing a series of round-robin games before a seeding and re-seeding process and eventual medals games on Saturday 22 April.
Presenting a wonderful opportunity for younger women to strengthen their engagement and interest in baseball, the Youth Women’s tournament will be contested by teams from New South Wales, Country New South Wales, Victoria Blue and Queensland - runner-up last time to Western Australia, which has not entered for the series this time.
Each team will play six preliminary games before medals rounds on Wednesday 19 April.
Australian Baseball Alumni extends to all teams, to organisers, volunteers and the host association our very best for successful and enjoyable tournaments that we know will be diligently reported upon by our friends at Baseball Australia.
LINKS
2017 WOMEN’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Image: Baseball Australia