Softball: Dearth of talent

The 12 players already in the White Sox can breathe easy - they are certainties for July's women's world series in Canada.

A four-game series in Wellington at the weekend against the country's next-best players, under the guise of a New Zealand selection, turned into a romp for the White Sox.

Perhaps the biggest problem for White Sox coach Mike Walsh is finding five players from the selection side to make up the 17-strong squad that will go to the world series.

The selection side made a promising start on Saturday night when they held the White Sox to 1-0 and 5-0 in the first two games, but from that point it was all downhill. The White Sox won yesterday's first game 7-1, and the final game in the series went their way 15-0 in five innings.

Two or three players in the selection team may have done their world series chances no harm, but for most it was a series to forget.

- NZPA