Southern Pride maintain South Island connection in draft selections
December 12, 2006
Wellington, NZ
Southern Pride maintain South Island connection in draft selections
Tuesday December 12th 2006
Despite having to make six player selections from outside their franchiseregion tonight in the New Zealand Community Trust Men’s National Leagueplayer draft Southern Pride have maintained their South Islandconnection.
Of the six draft selections made tonight by Southern Pride five hail fromCanterbury. From the draft tonight the southern side selected twopitchers Jared Welsh of Canterbury and Isaac Fletcher from Auckland. Alsopicked up by Southern Pride tonight were Scott Dale, Aaron Risdon, MartinWarren and Phil Bayne all from Canterbury.
The selection of Fletcher brings some experience to the mound forSouthern Pride as he has represented Auckland on occasions in recentseason during the league. Many of the draft selections made tonight bySouthern Pride bring experience with them with players such as ScottDale, Phil Bayne and Aaron Risdon all been part of the Canterbury Red Soxteams in the past.
New Southern Pride coach Ted Forrester says it was a conscience decisionto go with a number of Canterbury based players as draft selectionsbecause they are all players he knows well and who have played well forhim in the past.
Going into the National League Forrester is well aware of the challengeahead of him and the Southern Pride team but it is not something they arebacking away from as they have set the goal of qualifying for the topfour finals series.
A key to Southern Pride’s chances of achieving that goal will come downto the performance of pitchers Jared Welsh and Isaac Fletcher. Looking atthe awesome hitting line up of some of the other teams in the leagueForrester says both pitchers have a tough job ahead of them.
“Looking at teams like Wellington, Auckland and North Harbour therebatting is of a very high standard it is world class so we are going toneed a bit of luck and the bounce of the ball to go out way,” saidForrester.
Other franchises to round out their 14 man playing squads tonight withselections from the draft were North Harbour and Hutt Valley. Thedefending champions North Harbour selected Grant Dean, Yosuke Fukui,Haizley Martin and Rueben Topia. Hutt Valley has added Michael Telfer andMichael Foote to their squad.
New Zealand Community Trust Men’s National League Teams:
North Harbour- Brad Rona, Jarrad Martin (Pitchers), Leon Lambert, MichaelBoaler, David Down, Aaron Collier, Todd Wilson, Callum Ryan, JasonGerbes, Zack Doney, (Grant Dean, Yosuke Fukui, Haizley Martin, RuebenTopia).
Coach – Graeme Gollan.
Wellington – Craig Gibson, Tane Richardson (Pitchers), Stephen Ratu,Wayne Laulu, Gene Lutton, Les Poutama, Craig Wallace, Stacy McLean, DaveBishop, Thomas Makea, Fabian Makea, Corey Matakatea, Rick Manson, JohnPotts.
Coach – Les Bishop.
Canterbury – Penese Iosefo, Nathan Taikato (Pitchers), Clayton Ellis,Darren Davies, Jamie Frisby, Steve McFarlane, Paul DeLatour, TravisWilson, Paul Stead, Anthony Stewart, Gareth Cook, Todd Grego, DanielMilne, Brad Annandale.
Coach – Mike McDowell.
Southern Pride – (Jared Welsh, Isaac Fletcher) (Pitchers),ScottCartwright, Bevan Passmore, Daniel Tarapi, Chris Telfer, JonathanCampbell, Daniel Shayler, Christopher Anderson, Wanye Sangster, (ScottDale, Aaron Risdon, Martin Warren, Phil Bayne).
Coach – Ted Forrester.
Auckland – Heinie Shannon, Thomas Cameron (Pitchers), Lyndon Andrew,Patrick Shannon, Nathan Nukunuku, Bobby King, Michael Cameron, Carlaus TeKawa, Jonathan Munden, Michael Gibbs, Aaron Thompson, Gus Leger, BernardHale.
Player / Coach – Donny Hale.
Hutt Valley - Jeremy Manley, Regan Manley (Pitchers), Steven Deans,Curtis Ames, Justin Karaitana, Jerol Lajpold, Tyson Byrne, David Butler,Rakai Hokianga, Scott Higgins, Bronson Marino, Geoff Packer, (MichaelTelfer, Michael Foote)..
Coach – Dominic Richards.
* Names in brackets denote draft selections.
By SNZ Media Liaison: Kelly Mitchell
* mailto:kelly.mitchell@xtra.co.nz
http://www.softball.org.nz/
*mailto:snz@softball.org.nz
Cheers Vance
Softball New Zealand web master.
* mailto:vanf@ihug.co.nz
