SEMR Girls compete well at International Youth Cup

The SEMR U19 Girls team has completed their 2nd International Youth Cup (formally known as the Friendship Series) in Sydney by equalling their best result at the tournament. The team came away with 2 wins and very competitive, improved performances against all the competing teams. Teams competing were New Zealand Junior Girls development, Australian U17 Girls, School Sport Australia, Sunstate Wanderers (from Qld), NSW Metro & NSW Country.

SEMR started the tournament in fine form and were able to chalk up a couple of wins over the first couple of days with wins over the two NSW teams and really competitive games against Sunstate & Australian U17 Girls.

The girls faced freezing cold weather conditions and red hot opposition on day three with night games against School Sport Australia & New Zealand Junior Girls Development. Very tough conditions to play softball in but the SEMR girls fought hard and performed well against two of the strongest teams in the competition, refusing to give in and fought hard before ultimately falling short.

Day 4 saw the commencement of the elimination rounds and SEMR faced off against NSW Country in a game that ebbed and flowed for the whole game before falling 1 run short. This set up up a must win game against New Zealand Junior Girls Development. SEMR hit the ground running and scored first after a couple of scoreless innings. Defensively, both teams were on their game and the result was going to be determined by who could get some runners on base first. Unfortunately for SEMR, the New Zealand girls got a couple of hits away and followed up with some great, aggressive baserunning to pull away and ultimately win the game 7-3. The result ended the campaign for SEMR for this year.

The coaching staff were pleased with the overall performance from the team as whilst the team matched their number of wins from the previous year, the overall performance in all games was an improvement from the year before. This was most pleasing considering that 10 of the team played last year with 4 new players joining the team for the first time at this tournament.

The players who represented SEMR were: Ruth Addlem, Cassie Blakeway, Loryn Batrich, Grace Bibby, Bree Wanke, Steph Marsh, Karlee Thorne, Charlotte Dillon, Carley Stevens, Tara Stevens, Emma Willmott, Britt Tully, Allana Shearer & Lauren Cuthbert.

The International Youth Cup is a great opportunity for the girls to challenge themselves at a level that they would normally not have the chance to compete at against quality, elite competiton in a fun, relaxed team environment.
For the SEMR league and its member associations, the competition allows them to offer opportunity for players with a pathway to more elite competition, a pathway that SEMR is continuing to develop across all its junior age groups & genders.

The SEMR team is grateful for the support of their wonderful team sponsor,
Form 2000 Sheetmetal Pty Ltd
www.form2000.com.au

Sportz Of All Sortz.com is a huge fan & supporter of the SEMR team and we congratulate the team & staff on the performance at the 2011 International Youth Cup.
Check out our website at http://sportzofallsortz.com