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Black Sox softball captain Nathan Nukunuku is one of seven NZ internationals turning out for the Toronto Gators.
A Canadian team playing at the world's top softball club tournament could effectively be dubbed the Toronto Black Sox.
Seven members of New Zealand's silver medal winning squad at last month's world softball championsips in Saskatoon, Canada will play for the Toronto Gators at the International Softball Congress (ISC) tournament in South Bend, Indiana next weekend.
Black Sox captain Nathan Nukunuku (Auckland) will don Gators garb which is, fittingly, white and black. He will be joined by brothers Ben and Thomas Enoka (Auckland), veteran sluggers Brad Rona (North Harbour) and Wayne Laulu (Wellington) and Hutt Valley pair, Nik Hayes (pitcher) and Tyson Byrne (infielder).
Former Black Sox utility Frank Pointon (Canterbury) and Auckland's Samoan international Kallan Compain are also on the Gators' roster, which contains just four Ontario natives.Wellington's Jerome Raemaki, who was in great batting form for the Black Sox at the world championships playoffs, and, another New Zealand infielder, Joel Evans (Hutt Valley) will play for another Ontario outfit, the Kitchener Hallman Twins team with former Black Sox gold medal winning pitcher Jeremy Manley, now based in Bloomington, Illinois.Â
Raemaki and Evans will find themselves in the same dugout as Ryan Wolfe and Ian Fehrman, who were on the Canadian team that beat the Black Sox in the gold medal game at Saskatoon.
Black Sox pitcher-outfielder Jovaan Hanley (Hawke's Bay) will join 2013 Black Sox skipper Rhys Casley (Hutt Valley) on the New York Gremlins, bolstered by Canadian gold medallists Mathieu Roy and Rhys Casley and Australian internationals Andrew Kirkpatrick and Jeff Goolagong.
Donny Hale (Auckland, who won three world titles with the Black Sox, will play for the Scarborough Force at the ISC and former Black Sox catcher Cory Timu (Hutt Valley) will be with the Circle Tape Dukes, a Wisconsin team.
Manawatu-based Regan Manley will pitch for the Pueblo Bandits of of Colorado with his Christchurch United and Canterbury teammate Josh Thomson in the outfield.
Former Junior Black Sox representative Nopera Stockford (Canterbury), who played for Great Britain at the world championships, will turn out for the Topeka Toros, of Kansas, along with Wellington and Samoa pitcher Joel Harris.
Two young Hawke's Bay players, pitcher Adam Woon and Tiwana Aranui, will play for the Shakespeare Falcons and Bloomington Stix, respectively.
The ISC tournament starts on Saturday and ends on August 16.
