Batting practice for the worlds
This week it’s the Canadian Open for Surrey facility, next year it’s the world championship
Is Jenn Salling batting leadoff when it comes to B.C. Olympians returning to the Canadian national women’s softball team in time for the world championship next year at Softball City? It’s easy to wonder. Salling, 28, the rocket-armed shortstop from Port Coquitlam, has left the pro circuit in the U.S. and returned to the national side. She’s at Softball City, the four-field complex in Surrey, this week for the Canadian Open Fastpitch International tournament, which is a warm-up for the upcoming Pan Am Games in Toronto and also a dress rehearsal for organizers for next year’s worlds, which run July 15-24, 2016.
Salling, a dazzling defender, was part of the core group with Canada that went to those last Olympics for softball, the 2008 Beijing Games. They finished the equivalent of fourth spot. Salling was also a key contributor in the Canadian side that placed third at the 2010 worlds in Venezuela.
She stepped away from the program soon after, as did ace hurler Danielle Lawrie, a Langley native, and offensive sparkplug Melanie Matthews, an outfielder from Surrey.
Lawrie, 28, is now living in the Seattle area with her husband and daughter, who was born in December 2013. Matthews, 28, was working for an accounting firm locally at last word.
“I haven’t had any overtures from other people,” national team coach Mark Smith said of Salling being joined by other returning veterans for the run at the worlds, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if I do.
“I think a lot of it has to do with where people are in their lives. They are certainly young enough to continue playing. It has to be something that they want to do. The other thing is that they can’t be half way. These women we have are committed 12 months a year. They’re fit, they’re working hard. You can’t have somebody want to come into the environment and try to fake it. If you’re in, you’re in. If you’re not, you’re not.
“We are certainly willing to have conversations with anyone who is interested, but they’d have to be willing to make the same level of commitment that every player we have here has made.”
The 5-foot-5, left-handed hitting Salling, who was part of the University of Washington’s 2009 national championship side along with Lawrie, started out her career in the National Pro Fastpitch league in 2011 with the lengthy named U.S. Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) Pride, a team based in Kissimmee, Fla., but was traded last April to the Pennsylvania Rebellion in Washington, Penn.
She approached Smith about returning to the national program last year while watching the Canadian Open. She last played with the squad during the 2012 worlds in Whitehorse, but joined the team straight from the pro league for that tournament. She didn’t play in any of the warm-up events.
“It was just time,” Salling said about returning to the national team. “I was ready to move on, and I wanted to play in front of my family again. It was getting a little bit difficult for them to travel with the pro league.
“It’s nice to be back. It’s nice to meet the new faces and nice to play again with the ones I’ve played with for many, many years. It’s cool. Sometimes you feel like you pick up right where you left off and you’ve never been away.”