New South Wales are Champions again after defeating Victoria in the 2023 Open Men’s National Championships Grand Final, held at the Hawker International Softball Centre, ACT.

NSW 7 def VIC 0
NSW: 7R 9H 0E
VIC: 0R 1H 1E

It started out as an even contest as Victoria held New South Wales to just the one run in the first thanks to a James Todhunter double. NSW managed to fill the bases, but VIC held their nerve and restricted the potent offence. In reply, VIC could not manage a hit as the lead-off took two ground outs and a strike out.

In the second inning, NSW found their groove. Ryan King made it on base before Thomas Cass connected with a monster homerun to score two. Not to be outdone, Hayden Mathews then stepped up and bagged himself a homerun as well, adding another back-to-back homerun to the ledger of NSW. Mitchell Brownlow then helped Daniel Harrison make it home before VIC found a double play to slow the NSW attack.

In the third and fourth, a home run in each inning to Ryan King (in the third) and Jeremy Garland (in the fourth) was all that split the two teams – an indicator of the valiant defence VIC put up, that only the perfect hit was able to break through.

But Garland’s homer was crucial as it gave NSW a seventh run, and a chance to put the game away with just one more inning.

VIC held the big hitting NSW line-up to a scoreless fifth, but Jack Besgrove proved a very tricky opponent for the VIC hitters as they ended the fifth with loaded bases but no runs.

Cass took 2RBIs for the NSW batters, while Mathews, Todhunter, Brownlow, Garland and King all managed an RBI each.

Besgrove put on another powerful Grand Final performance to take five strikeouts and allow just the one hit from five innings pitched – earning him the Player of the Grand Final award for his efforts.

View the Play by Play, Box Scores and Stats here.

Watch the replay of the Grand Final here.

In the post-game awards ceremony, the following awards were presented, congratulations to all recipients:

• Rosemary Adey Rookie of the Year: Jeremy Garland (New South Wales)
  • 9 Games Played
  • 12 At Bats
  • 7 Hits
  • 0.583 Batting Average
  • 0.692 On Base Average
  • 4.729 ERA
  • 12 Innings Pitched
• Best Pitcher: Harrison Peters (New South Wales)
  • 20 Innings Pitched
  • 0.350 Earned Run Average
  • 75 Batters Faced
  • 31 Strikeouts
  • 0.413 Strikeout Average
• Best Batter: James Todhunter (New South Wales)
• Most Valuable Player: James Todhunter (New South Wales)
  • 9 Games Played
  • 30 Plate Appearances
  • 0.560 Batting Average
  • 1.320 Slugging Average
  • 0.700 On Base Average
  • 14 Hits
  • 15 RBIs
  • 6 Home runs
  • 1.000 Field Average
• Player of the Grand Final: Jack Besgrove (New South Wales)
  • 5 Innings Pitched
  • 22 Batters Faced
  • 1 Hit
  • 5 Strikeouts

A massive thanks to the team and volunteers at Softball ACT for their outstanding work and hospitality over the past five days.

We'd also like to thank our partners at Easton and SportsLink Travel for their on-going support.

The National Championships roadshow has one more stop to make during the #SummerofSoftball back down to Victoria to the Hume facility for the U23 Men’s National Championships - Laing Harrow Shield – which starts on Wednesday the 1^st of February!