Softball: Bay youngster eyes more televised play

ENORMOUS POTENTIAL: Hawke's Bay softballer Kahurangi Beamsley-Allan has had a taste of televised glory and is eager for more. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR

Put in the hours and the metres and the rewards will come.

Any youngster with a glimpse of potential in any code is told this early in their teens. In the case of 14-year-old Hawke's Bay softballer Kahurangi Beamsley-Allan the reward was playing in the televised fixture between the North and South Island under-15 teams in Auckland at the weekend.

A Maraenui Pumas player since he was four, Beamsley-Allan took the diamond as a substitute third baseman and collected one safe hit from two turns at bat, the biggest of the game over the head of the South Island centre outfielder during North's 3-1 victory.

The same smile he had on television during Sunday's curtainraiser to the TAB Challenge Cup final which saw the Black Sox beat Argentina 9-0 was still on his face yesterday.

"It was a great experience. We got to watch the Black Sox play after our game and I had a photo with Jovaan afterwards," Beamsley-Allan said referring to Hawke's Bay-based Black Sox utility Jovaan Hanley.

"I definitely want more of that level of rep play and I will keep working hard to get it," the only Bay member of the North Island team said.

The Te Aute College year 10 student is having an outstanding summer. Earlier this month he hit an automatic home run over the centre outfield fence on diamond one at Akina Park, Hastings for the Pumas premier team as they beat pre-Christmas champions Saints 9-5.

"It was my first automatic and Adam shook my hand," Beamsley-Allan said referring to Saints 2016 Junior Black Sox World Series pitcher Adam Woon who conceded the homer.

Karaitiana and Tiwana Aranui are the only Pumas who have hit automatic home runs for the club's premier team as 14-year-olds in the past. Beamsley-Allan heaped kudos on the Aranui brothers late father Roger Aranui, fellow Pumas stalwart Tama Houkamau and his father and fellow Pumas premier player Damian Allan for the work they have put in to him.

"I'm pretty lucky to have had their influence and Thomas is my idol," he said referring to Hawke's Bay's four-time world champion and Junior Black Sox head coach Thomas Makea.

It's normal for Beamsley-Allan to play four games every Saturday, one for the Pumas under-15s in the morning, one for the club's under-19s at noon, one for the premiers at 2pm and one for the senior Bs at 4pm. This weekend he will have those four and then play for his school against Hato Paora in the annual fixture in Palmerston North on Sunday.

"Every Saturday I leave home at 7am and get home at 8.30pm. It's similar on school days when I leave home at 6.30am to get the bus and I get home by 5.30pm so I can either train or get to the Beast House for my strength and conditioning sessions with Shaun Rankin."

"Pitcher is my main position but I don't mind playing third base or second base if I can keep making rep teams," the second-season Hawke's Bay under-15 rep said.

A former Napier Ross Shield rugby player, Beamsley-Allan, hopes to play for his school's 1st or 2nd XV this year. He consders rugby as a form of relaxation and softball will always be his priority.

Beamsley-Allan's inter-island selection is one chapter of what has been a memorable week for Hawke's Bay male softballers. Earlier last week his Pumas clubmate Kupa Isherwood was selected in a 20-strong New Zealand Emerging Sox under-17 squad.

Players in this squad have been identified as contenders for the 2020 Junior World Series. Yesterday four members of Isherwood's Hawke's Bay under-17 team which finished second at last month's national tournament in Pukekohe were selected in a 41-strong squad from which the Junior Black Sox team for next year's Junior World Series in Canada will be selected from.

They are Xavier Kingi, Ihaka Tangaroa, Liam Udy-Johns and Jayden Dowd.