The Lesotho Baseball and Softball Association (LBSA) hosted the 2023 Summer Tournament on December 3 and 4, a tri-nation softball event for both men and women featuring teams from Lesotho, Botswana and South Africa.
The tournament also served as part of the selection process for the Lesotho Men's National Softball Team, aiming to participate in the WBSC World Cup Africa Qualifier in February. The event was marked by the LBSA as a milestone in the resurgence of softball in the African country.
A total of 12 teams participated during the weekend. Participating teams included the Kings, Gills, Ben Killers, Gladiators, Rovers, Barbie Killer and Parentos from Lesotho; the Hawks from Botswana and Royals from the North West Province in South Africa.
“We (LBSA) have these summer tournaments, and we call them festive tournaments because they're huge. Right now, we have six local men’s teams and four women’s teams, with the other two coming from outside the country," said LBSA President T’seliso Lemphane to Informative News. "It is evident that the sport had remained dormant for a very long time in the country.”
At the end of the weekend, the Royals from South Africa won the men's tournament with the Hawks from Botswana finishing second and the Kings from Lesotho in third place. On the women’s side, Parentos took the title, while Gills secured second place with the Barbie Killers in third.
Lemphane mentioned that the level of interest in the tournament has increased since its debut last year. "The magnitude of last year’s tournament was not this size. I’m really happy today to have a turnout of such a large number of teams, and I truly regard this as a milestone," he said.
After their fourth-place finish in the African Championship 2023, Lesotho is currently ranked No. 61 in the WBSC Women's Softball World Ranking. Meanwhile, the men's program is unranked, with their last participation in 2019 at the Men's Softball Africa Championship, where they finished third.
“We are reviving the sport and are glad because we have quite a number of sponsors on board, which also include our mother body, the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC)," said Lemphane. "We are working together with team managers and players to cohesively take the sport to a higher level. When talking about administration, it's inclusive of coaching courses, umpiring courses, and scoring courses.”
Lemphane has high expectations about the future of baseball/softball in Lesotho, stating that with children at the primary level who are already engaging and taking part in the sport. "We are very optimistic about the future of softball and baseball in our country."
