Albany, NZ - Black Sox to host top softball tournament before world champs
The Black Sox will get to play an international men's softball series at home during their buildup to the 2017 world championships.
The Black Sox perform the haka before winning the 2013 world championships final at Albany. They will be back at Rosedale Park in March for a five-team international tournament.
The Black Sox will get to play an international men's softball series at home during their buildup to the 2017 world championships.
Softball New Zealand (SNZ)Â Â is organising a five-team series planned for March at Rosedale Park in Albany.
SNZ chief executive Tony Giles said it was too early to confirm the invited teams, but the field was likely to include sides from the Pacific, Europe and South America.
Giles said negotiations were underway with a potential broadcaster and event sponsor and he expected to confirm details by July or August.
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Australia - ranked third in the world - have already named a training squad to prepare for the event. Coach Laing Harrow's squad does not include pitching aces Adam Folkard and Andrew Kirkpatrick, but it does feature hitters Aaron Cockman and Ryan Merriman, who have recently played in New Zealand.
Black Sox coach Mark Sorenson said the Auckland tournament would be a perfect way for his team to prepare for the July 2017 championships in Whitehorse, Canada.
"The Black Sox went through a stage where they didn't play at home for four or five years," he said. "Any time we can get an opportunity to play at home and expose our world class athletes has got to be a good thing.
"We've had Australia over a couple of times nd we're looking for another three or four countries to be involved in this series."
Sorenson said the March tournament would follow on from the Las Americas Cup tournament in Venezuela in November where the Black Sox will be up against most of the world's best teams, with the exception of Australia.
"It will be possibly be the biggest tournament we've attended outside a world championship," he said.
"It's going to be a huge few months, but the good thing is it will give us an opportunity to expose  a wider group of talent to that level  of ball. We're unlikely to have exactly the same group going to both events."
The Black Sox had a training camp in Auckland in mid-April and will re-convene  for further fitness testing in September when Sorenson and his assistants will name the squad to tour Venezuela.
Thirteen Black Sox squad members will be playing club ball in North America this winter.
The Black Sox last played in New Zealand in December 2014 when played Australia and Samoa in the Oceania series to clinch their place in the 2015 world championships finals.
They also hosted the Australian Steelers in a test series at Albany in March 2014, winning two games to one, a year after winning their sixth world title at the same venue in 2013.
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 - Stuff
