The Temperzone Junior Black Sox had a shaky build-up prior to featuring in the European Men's Super-Cup in Prague, Czech Republic this week.Â
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The side played two warm-up games against the Czech Republic U23 team, who beat the Kiwis in both and left the New Zealand coaches seeking improvements.Â
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The New Zealand management noted that there were some small mental errors that cost them, but that these were to be expected after travelling for many hours.Â
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A third match was secured against a local men's team. It was an "entertaining match", with coaches, Jarrad Martin and Thomas Makea, "using all of their tricks". The Kiwis took the game 15-10 as a result of impressive base running and solid hitting. Callum Bishop and Bailey Hamilton had good outings, both with automatic home runs.Â
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The European Men's Super-Cup began on Monday, with the Junior Black Sox playing two games. They beat Pioneers (Netherlands) 9-1, but fell to Radotin (Czech Republic) 5-6 in closely fought match.Â
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Earlier today the Kiwis faced JA Team Enjoy from Italy and claimed a 4-2 win. Bailey Hamilton leads the team hitting with 4 hits to his name. Pitcher, Joshua Merritt, had a total of 15 strikeouts in 7 innings pitched.Â
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New Zealand has two games tomorrow against teams from Denmark and France at 12.15pm and 4.45pm local time.Â
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Glen Roff - Softball Manager
Softball New Zealand
m: 021537082 | p: 04 5600389
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