Softball: Black Sox plan clean sweep

By JULIE ASH

The Black Sox are aiming to keep their unbeaten record intact when they take on Australia in a four-test series this week.

Australia have not beaten the New Zealand men's team in more than 13 years of competition.

The sides play two tests on Friday night at Lower Hutt and two the next day at Hataitai.

New Zealand last beat Australia in Canberra in March. They won the series 2-0 after two of the tests were rained out.

While maintaining the clean record is the aim for New Zealand coach Don Tricker, he would also like to see some improvement from the last series.

"Any opportunity for us to play gives us the chance to work together as a team," he said.

"We have several players who haven't a lot of experience with the Black Sox, so this will be great for them."

But Tricker said the Black Sox should never underestimate Australia.

"They ranked in the top eight in the world at the last World Series. And they dropped a couple of games they would have kicked themselves over.

"It looks like they are bringing over a team to develop for the next World Series and are looking to introduce a number of players as well."

The New Zealand team strongly resemble those who competed in Australia in March.

Canterbury utility Blair Murphy is the only new cap in the 17-strong side.

The 28-year-old Christchurch United player has been a provincial representative since 1992.

North Harbour's Brad Rona has been recalled after he was unavailable for the March tour, and Harbour pitcher Derrek Coleman is also back after recovering from injury.

Rona and Coleman replace Wellington's Bevan Martin and Michael Gaiger from Hutt Valley, who were unavailable.

Tricker said he would also be considering positions in the Black Sox for February's series against Japan.



"You can expect some changes before the Japan series," he said.

The Australian side include six players making their debut.

With only half a dozen players remaining from last year's world championship team, the Australians will also be using this series to build toward the next world championships, in 2004.

Australia are captained by third baseman Peter Clout, who made his international debut in 1996.

"The more opportunities we have to play internationally, the better we will become," he said.

"Although the next world championships are still three years away, this tour is the first step in establishing ourselves as a competitive team."