Australian Women's Championships Recap

Last week we saw our SA Women's State team come 3rd at the Australian Women's Championships. We had a strong squad of women; some returning, some who hadn't played in state representative side in a year or two and some brand-new players. We were very proud of the way this squad represented the state with their commitment and passion.

Here are a few words from head coach, Austin Gallagher:

This 2023 South Australian Women’s team can be summed up with one word: resilient. These girls prepared and worked so incredibly hard, not only through our trainings as a squad, but from the commencement of last year’s tournament with one goal in mind, continue to push the bar. Throughout the past few seasons, we’ve had a few setbacks along the way which included not having a tournament due to COVID and a few players not participating due to personal reasons. This year’s squad was the first SA Women’s State team to consist of a roster comprised of 100% South Australian born players and not having to require imports or friendship players to make up the rest of the roster. In addition, I personally believe this was the most talented squad that SA has ever assembled and are looking to continue this trend for years to come as we have a lot of very talented young Women who are coming up from our youth programs.

The biggest factors in allowing us to achieve our goals this year were pitching depth, a consistent lineup, and veteran leadership rounded out with some very talented younger players. Having players like Taylor McKay, Sarah Short, Darna Boers-Veen, Ashleigh George, Sarah McMahon, and Bianca Smith return to the squad after having some time away over the past few nationals gave us the confidence to put a squad together that had experience and believed in a team goal. Having the leadership of Jess Maslin and Carly Moore in the middle of the lineup allowed us to believe that we were able to score runs at any stage of the game. Another major factor was having our Captain and leader Carly Moore behind the plate as catcher this year; taking control of the pitching staff as well as limiting the opposition running game. The excitement of second year players like Georgia Davis, Lucy Davis, Gemma Letton, Amara Quinn, Bianca Ramsey, and Claire Warburton saw a tremendous impact on the team and with their youth and outstanding performance, provide an outstanding base for years of National Tournaments together to come. First year players Alyssa Lasscock and Ella Forrester both came out and had strong nationals and were both able to record their first nationals hits, as well as the both of them having very strong and quality at bats throughout the tournament.

Everyone involved should be very proud of this tournament. Not only from the result of bringing home the bronze medal, but mentally from what we gained from this years Nationals. This year, we believed we should be there and we believed that we could win. We came out with a goal to win gold and were in a position where we were one win away from competing in that gold medal game. To compete against states that have way more players and programs who have been around way longer than ours, shows the strength of our Women to compete and play baseball to their highest capabilities. Our bar is set and we look to push that next year and the following years to come to hopefully continue our success and prove that our Women’s Program here in SA is one to be reckoned with.