Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Softball players selected for champs
Two top of the south softballers from rival regions will don the same jersey when they take on the country’s fastest pitchers this month.
Nelson’s Cole James and Marlborough’s Braden Healy usually face off in their local senior men’s club competition, won last season by Healy’s Saints team.
But the pair have both been chosen to play for the Southern Pride - a side selected from South Island softball players from outside of Canterbury who join forces to have “a bit more of a chance against the bigger regions”,James said.
The Southern Pride will attend the National Fastpitch Championship being held in Auckland from February 15-18, where their batters will face balls travelling at speeds over 130k/h.
“It’s fun, you just hope you don’t get hit by it ... it’s called softball, but trust me, those balls aren’t soft,” James said.
Most teams had the opportunity to practice together before the tournament started, but as Southern Pride players were from all around the motu, they had to figure out their game plan once they arrived.
“Auckland can pretty much put on a whole team of Black Sox players ... they get to play together, train together and stuff like that. We’re all from different places, so we sort of get to the tournament and have to figure out pretty quickly what works and find that synergy,” he said.
“There’s usually a bunch of the boys from Nelson and Marlborough in there, which is great.”
James was a Pride veteran, this year marking his sixth call-up.
In previous years, he said the team had been given the chance to play against invited national teams such as the Czech Republic and Japan.
“It’s just a fun tournament ... you get out there and you play softball, have fun and you’re playing real high level softball, which is just is the best fun, in my opinion,” he said.
“I’m feeling quite good. I’ve been training pretty hard, so hopefully that all pays off and I go well.”
Healy said the team wasn’t going in to the the tournament with an expectation to win it, “but I think that’s also a good thing”.
“Like we’re not going in with any pressure or any sort of like expectations on us, which might also help a bit, just go in and play some ball, really,” he said.
“In saying that, I think there’s a real good culture between the top of the south and bottom of the south. Them, Otago, Southland and then us Nelson, Marlborough boys, like we all know each other quite well and get along really well so I think that all helps out as well.”
Healy and Cole had occupied the same bench for representative sides in the past, but this would be Healy’s first year at the national championships with the Pride.
“I’ve been in the team a couple of times, but this will be my first time going away though,” he said.
“I’ve had a couple of injuries and what not, so first time going away which is good.
“Growing up, in like Tasman teams, I played with Cole a number of times already ... it’ll be good to play with him again and not against him all the time.”