Softball: Star-studded Dodgers women nail final spot

Emma Houkamau and Courtney Gettins

Hawke's Bay softball pitcher Courtney Gettins celebrated her latest Junior White Sox World Series selection in style on Saturday.

Gettins, 18, pitched a no-hitter and struck out 10 of the 15 batters she faced as her Dodgers club side walloped Johnsonville 9-0 in five innings in their Wellington intercity competition semifinal in the capital to secure a final berth against Te Aroha at Hataitai Park this Saturday.

Gettins, who played at the last Junior World Series in 2013 and also for the White Sox at their World Series last year, was last week one of three Dodgers players named in the Junior White Sox team for the August Junior World Series in Oklahoma City.

Catcher-infielder Emma Houkamau and short stop Brooke Eden were the others. Eden, centre outfielder Jodi Petersen and first base player Allyssa James all hit triples for Dodgers, who are the defending champions in the Wellington competition as well as the national women's interclub titleholders.

Dodgers' designated player Lisa Pohatu collected three hits from as many turns at bat.

"I couldn't be happier with the semifinal," Dodgers coach and Junior White Sox head coach Kevin Gettins said.

After the final against Te Aroha, Dodgers' attention will turn to the Christchurch-hosted national women's interclubs, to be played from March 12-15. Dodgers were the senior team award winners at last year's Ngati Kahungunu Sportsperson of the Year and Hawke's Bay Sportsperson of the Year awards functions.

Four Bay players have been selected in a 36-strong Junior Black Sox training squad for the July 2016 World Series in Midland Michigan. They are the Saints trio of Adam Woon, Jacob Zurcher and Dallas Brown and Maraenui Pumas' Callum Carson.

The squad has its first training camp in Wellington in May and build-up tournaments in Australia and the Czech Republic before December's North Island Classic in Hastings, after which the World Series team of 17 is named.

Bay's four-time world champ Thomas Makea jnr will again be head coach of the Junior Black Sox. Fellow Black Sox legend Jarrad Martin and his cousin Bevan Martin, who is also a Black Sox world champ, will be on his coaching staff.