26/11/2022 - 04/12/2022

#MensSoftballWC  

Hosted by:   NZL

XVII Men's Softball World Cup 2022 - Official Payoff

New Zealand Black Sox to open national team trials for WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup on home soil

New Zealand Black Sox to open national team trials for WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup on home soil
17/01/2022
The Black Sox plan to tour Australia in May, three years after their last competition as a team.

Softball New Zealand have unveiled their plans to regain the title at this year's WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup, to be played in Auckland from 26 November to 4 December. The Black Sox will start their training process with three tryouts in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

More than 80 have players registered to participate in the selection process. The trials will begin at Fraser Park in Wellington, from 21-22 January. Rosedale Park in Auckland, home of the WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup 2022, will host the second trial from 28-29 January, with the last tryout to be held at Mizuno Ballpark in Christchurch from 4-6 February.

“We’ll now be doing everything we can to put [captain] Cole Evans and Mark Sorenson and their team in the best position to win the World Cup in Auckland at the end of 2022,’’ Softball New Zealand CEO Tony Giles said to Stuff.com.

Ten members of the 2019 team, which ended in fourth place at the World Cup -- leaving the team without a medal for the first time since 1980 -- will take part in the trials to make the 2022 national team. 

The Black Sox plans to tour Australia in May, three years after their last competition as a team, depending on sanitary and safety border rules on both sides of the Tasman Sea.

New Zealand's final World Cup roster will be made based in these trials, evaluations in the national tournaments, the Australia tour and other trials/training camps later in the year.