WORLD SERIES WINNER AS AN AUSSIE TEENAGER

By any measure, your representative career is really impressive. It’s truly astounding what you accomplished, particularly at such a young age in a sport where people don’t often reach their prime till their 30s.

AMy first Australian team was at 17. It all happened really quickly. Queensland had put together their first women’s team to go away to national championships. I was playing in the local league in Lismore at the time. I had been playing softball and won an under-16s national championship for NSW. I thought the game was pretty similar and I stood a chance to be picked. The following year, the Australian squad was announced and I got picked to go to Florida to play for the Aussie Stars. It was an invitational Australian representative team. I won a women’s World Series at age 17 and then finished high school. It was amazing. It was such an incredible experience and something they don’t really do any more. We played the final in St Petersburg (home of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays). We beat Japan, which was absolutely amazing. Sometimes opportunities come calling and you’ve got to run with it. I was the baby of the team and I came away with a whole heap of knowledge. It was a building block for what we have in Australian women’s baseball. I remember pitching in one of the games and we weren’t doing so well. I managed to do what we needed done and that helped us get to the finals.