Scott Cartwright hopes exposure to elite competition will
help Otago's younger softballers learn what is required at
the top level.
Cartwright led his Dodgers, the Dunedin champions, to the
national club championships in Christchurch last week.
In an extremely strong field dominated by traditionally
powerful clubs and laced with Black Sox, the Dodgers lost
seven of their eight games, failing to score in three of
them.
But Cartwright, the veteran all-rounder and Dunedin
softballer of the year, said there was no doubt the trip had
been worthwhile.
"The whole point of us going was to give our young guys a
chance to see what the game is really about," he said
yesterday.
"It's the best tournament in the country, so it's always
worthwhile to go to it."
The Dodgers side included the Watts brothers, rising pitcher
Ben (17) and Cameron (15), as well as youngsters from Central
Otago (Scott Cameron) and the Ellis Park club (Ryan
Williams).
Ben Watts pitched against three top clubs - the Mt Albert
Ramblers, Poneke-Kilbirnie and the Waitakere Bears - and held
his own.
Only once in eight games did the Dodgers manage to score more
than one run, in a 5-3 loss to Christchurch club Albion.
"Our guys struggled against top pitching. We just don't see
that standard regularly. But we got better as the week went
on."
The highlight of the Dodgers' week was beating their
Southland rivals, the Demons, 3-1 on the opening day.
The tournament was won by the Hutt Valley Dodgers, who beat
the PCU Devils (Canterbury) 8-6 in the final on Saturday.
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