News
Canada Cup 2023 Preview
Published Mon 10 Jul 2023
With the first pitch approaching, more than 60 athletes, coaches and support staff are undergoing final team preparations having embarked on a journey to Vancouver, Canada for the 2023 edition of the Canada Cup. The current contingent matches last year’s travelling party, as Softball Australia will again have three teams competing throughout the tournament.
The Canada Cup is a WBSC sanctioned event and is considered one of the premier women’s softball tournaments. It is expected that this year’s event will be the largest in Canadian history, with over 1,500 athletes competing across five divisions, featuring three Australian women’s teams: Australia A, Australia Under-19, and Australia Under-17.
Leading the Australia squad to Canada is National Pathways Manager, Dr Clare Humberstone, who spoke about the development opportunities the Canada Cup provides our Australian players.
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“The Canada Cup tournament offers a rare opportunity for all three of our women's pathways teams to access world class competition in a single location. There's great excitement among the group, as well as some nerves. For some players it's an opportunity to represent Australia for the first time, and for others it's a chance to push their case for a future opportunity in the Aussie Spirit team. For Softball Australia, the success of the Canada Cup tour is not defined by our teams winning the tournament. Rather, success is defined by the quality of the learnings that take place and the performances of players when under pressure.” |
The Australia A team list underwent a few minor changes, as players Jamie Mead and Jenna Trim, along with team official Andrew Havercroft, withdrew from the roster. The team welcomed the inclusion of players Mackayla Denney and Alyssa Mighell who bring their exceptional skills and enthusiasm to the squad. Additionally, coach Drew Herrington has joined the Australia U-19 coaching staff to provide invaluable guidance and support throughout the tournament, as triple Olympian Brooke Penfold takes her expertise to the Australia A team as battery coach.
Also travelling with the squad is Australian umpire, James English, a WBSC accredited umpire who has been selected as part of an umpire exchange program with Softball Canada.
Australia A takes on Japan in their opening game on Monday 10 July at 10:30am local time (3:30am AEST, Tuesday 11 July), before facing the hosts, Team Canada, later that evening at 6:30pm local (11:30am AEST, Tuesday 11 July).
The Australia Under-19 team take on Snohomish Shock 05 in their opener at 8:30pm local time on Monday 10 July (1:30pm AEST, Tuesday 10 July), while the Australia Under-17 team begins their tournament against Calgary Kaizen U17 Black at 1:00pm local time on the same day (6:00am AEST, Tuesday 11 July).
Each team has played two exhibition games as final preparation for the upcoming tournament.
Follow the live scores for all our Australia teams, made available via the Game Changer app (see our Canada Cup hub for links).
Canada Cup will be providing a free live stream of all women’s games being played on Diamond 1 & 2 at the Softball City venue, featuring all Australia A games to be broadcasted. You can sign up and watch the live streaming here.
For all details, including team lists, live scores, results & recaps, see our Canada Cup information hub here.
Follow the Canada Cup on Facebook and Instagram #canadacup2023
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