The region is helping foster the next generation of talent with four players destined for Australia next week.
Dunedin players Taki Adlam, Crew Wilson and Ropata Campbell and Central Otago player Tane O’Neill have been named in the New Zealand U15 Developing Sox boys’ team to tour Queensland.
It is significant recognition for the sport in the South, which often struggles to be recognised at a national level.
Adlam, 14, a left-handed pitcher and first baseman from King’s High School, will be familiar with many of the Queensland players he comes up against, having lived in the Australian state — and played softball over there — until returning to New Zealand last year.
Wilson and Campbell, who are both 15 and attend Otago Boys’ High School, have come through the Dunedin softball pathways, guided by coaches Stacey Wardell, Sarah Teasdale and Kirsty Currie.
The trio play for the Southern Magpies U15 team, who were Otago champions last summer, and also play in the Magpies Tane team in division 2.
They will all add some different flavour to the national team across the field.
Wilson, who was named in a ‘‘best of the rest’’ tournament team after the New Zealand U17 championships in January, is primarily a first baseman, and Campbell will be used as an outfielder for the national squad.
O’Neill is no stranger to the softball pitch.
The multi-talented athlete, who attends Dunstan High School and plays his club softball for Demons in the Southland competition, was part of the national squad last year that competed at the inaugural invitational Tasman Cup tournament against New South Wales teams.
The Developing Sox team, coached by Stacey Taylor and assistant Matty Hicks, fly out on Thursday and have a busy six days ahead of them.
They play two games against the Toowoomba and Ipswich U16 teams.
The team will then travel to Redland, where they will play five games against the Queensland U16 team across a couple of days.
