Outstanding win by softball girls

Written on the 19 May 2014 by SWSAS

Over the Easter Long weekend the South West Sydney Academy of Sport (SWSAS) girls’ softball squad exceeded all expectations, which also included some amazing personal playing performances.

The girls’ squad travelled to Victoria to compete in the highly competitive Waverly Tournament against some of the best teams from across Australia and New Zealand.

With the tournament commencing in extremely difficult weather conditions, the girls were able to start the weekend off well with a good win over Waverley (VIC) on Friday afternoon 3-0.

On the Saturday, with wind and rain still persisting and conditions deteriorating further, the Academy’s girls adapted to the conditions better than most and at times played some brilliant Softball culminating the day with 4 wins from 4 games. This was a fantastic result against strong competition from NSW, VIC, SA and New Zealand teams and finishing with a total run tally of 39 runs for and only 5 against.

Sunday would prove to be a real challenge for the girls with some strong competition to come from Softball institutions such as the Western Sydney Academy and Northern Metro Academy.

First up was Northern Metro finishing in an exciting nil all draw. Next was the very strong Western Sydney Academy with SWSAS going down 6-3, even though it was a tough day the girls still made it to the Cup Division which was the top 4 teams. This was a major achievement for the team as it is only the second time the Academy had ever made it into the top division in this competition.

The semi-final round robin series saw SWSAS come up against the best of the rest, with the top two teams going to the final. Waverley (VIC) was first up and after a very tough fight SWSAS went down 1-0. This game was followed by Western Sydney Academy and putting in a courageous effort the girls came away with a win 4-3.

Going into Monday morning SWSAS needed a win to get into the Final the game was against Miramar (NZ) , Miramar also put up some tough competition but in the end SWSAS came away with a 3-0 win, which was enough to put SWSAS in the final against the local ‘hot-shots’ Waverley.

The final was a very hard fought game with the score locked at 1-1 at full time. The game then went into a tie breaker which saw SWSAS come out deserved winners 5-1.

Coaches Peter Doherty and Fiona Ioannou said this was the first time after many tries, the Academy have won this tournament and recognising the high calibre of play,  it was a great effort by the team and also the coaching staff.

Doherty also said, well-deserved congratulations must go to two outstanding performers for SWSAS, the ‘MVP of the Tournament’ Jaime Southgate and ‘Player of the Final’ Gabby Plain.

Head Coach Tony Jackson said he could not be happier with the result and is very proud of the achievements of the girls and all attending coaching staff.