Softball: Botswana tour 'outstanding'

The national men's softball team can look back on an unbeaten, run-laden two-week trek through Botswana happy with what was achieved.

They played 11 games against Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Botswana B, scoring 164 runs and conceding just two.

The world champions were rarely tested. The closest result came in the final of the African world championship qualifying tournament when they beat Botswana 4-0.

Despite the lopsided scorelines, coach Don Tricker called the trip to Botswana an outstanding success.

"The objective was to build the game we wanted to carry forward to the world championships [in Christchurch next year]," Tricker said.

"I have never seen this team hit the ball so hard.

"All tour our hitting was been relentless."

Rather than focusing on the opposition, Tricker said the past fortnight had been about training and preparing for the world championships.

The tour gave the team the chance to build a game plan for the championships and then put it into practice on the diamond.

"While it might have been nice to have been put under a bit more pressure, some of the teams we came up against did play quite well, but with the quality of this side we just kicked away from them."

Tricker said performances on tour made the job of selecting a team for the world championships even tougher.

The squad will be named in September.

- NZPA