Team SA set to compete at Baseball5 Championship

The team to represent South Africa at the inaugural African Baseball5 Championship in Tanzania from May 23 – 26 has been announced.

The team, which comprises four men and four women, will go to the East African country to compete against nine other African countries.

Baseball5 is a new version of baseball and softball. According to team South Africa coach, Americo Juma, it was introduced to help players master the fundamentals of the game.

“Baseball5 was put in place by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) for developing the game and is an instrument to master the fundamentals of baseball.

“We don’t use any equipment. We only use a rubber ball which we hit with our hands. You can play it anywhere. The field dimension is 18m x 18m and you only need five players to play.

“It is one of the sports that supports social cohesion and promotes women in sports,” Juma explained.

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Team SA will face tough competition from Tunisia, with a well-established and highly competitive Baseball5 group.

Juma stated his team is unfased by the Tunisians and will go to Tanzania to compete.

“We have a very young team that has a good knowledge of the sport and who have adjusted well to the game of Baseball5. They have been monitoring developments in the game and they are becoming competitive.

“The only country to keep an eye on is Tunisia who is playing competitively. But we are on the same level as the rest of the countries. We are going to compete.”

Coach Hayley Maree added that although the group stage matches will be tough, they will stick to their game plan.

“We are going for gold even though we have a tough pool against Uganda, Tunisia, Ghana and Zimbabwe.

“We have a great chance to upset Tunisia in the three-game series format of the game.”

The squad consists of:

Men: Darian Pretorius (Gauteng), Louis Albertyn (Gauteng), Sylvester Maredi (Limpopo) and Aiden Bartes (Eastern Cape).

Non-Travelling Reserves: Dylan O’Brien (KwaZulu-Natal), Sipelo Gadudu (Eastern Cape) and Austine Mankga (Limpopo).

Women: Mariska Barnard (Gauteng), Itumeleng Moreroa (Gauteng), Juanay Kleynhans (Gauteng) and Liandri van Rooyen (Gauteng).

Non-Travelling Reserves: Nicolene Grobler (Gauteng), Bonolo Tlome (Gauteng) and Yolanda Jiya (Eastern Cape).

Coaches: Americo Juma and Hayley Maree.

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