The Southland Boys' High School Softball Team competed in the Division 1 National Secondary Schools Tournament in Christchurch last week, placing 4th.

Inclement weather disrupted play at the beginning of the week, but that did not dampen the spirits of the boys - after beating St Bede’s from Christchurch 4-0. The draw was altered to allow for the postponed games and the team went on to have mixed results in round robin play:

Vs St Pat’s Silverstream Lost 6-1Vs Kaiapoi High Won 16-3Vs Dunstan High Won 13-1Vs Shirley Boys Lost 6-1 (highlight of the game was Matt Johnson’s ‘bomb’ over the homerun fence),Vs Rolleston Won 7-0

In the play offs, the team played St Bede’s again with a convincing win of 8-1 to earn 4th place.

A big congratulations to Tyrese Kennedy for earning the title of top pitcher of the tournament with an earned run average of 0.00 (can’t get any better than that!), Lincoln Te Tai for an awesome batting average of .667 for the tournament (3rd on the batting stats) and to Ryan Wells for 9 RBIs (runs batted in).

Thank you to Max Moyles and Rosie Cullen for coaching and Kelly Jennings for managing. Without them, the team wouldn’t have been able to compete in this prestigious tournament.