Far North Coast Softball Association's Wesley Wilford and Oliver Shields have taken to the diamonds at the Australian Under 14 Boys Regional Championships.

Originally set down to be played in Canberra, the championships have been moved to Sydney to be played at the Blacktown International Sports Park due to recent bushfires.

Both boys have been playing competitive softball for the last two years, Wilford for the Rous Hotel Softball Club and Shields for Casino Softball.

Known for their impressive batting and aggressive fielding skills, the boys have developed and fine turned their skills by playing in the Division 1 Women’s Competition on Saturdays.

This year the championships have been split into two different formats. The new “Fully Loaded” version of the game will be played from Sunday to Monday, followed by “Fastpitch” commencing Tuesday going through to Saturday.

The boys will be playing for NSW Country Gold and apart from one weekend of training in December, their team has been unlucky in their three Fully Loaded games going down to South Australia 14 runs to 11, NSW Metro Orange 20 to 15 and to Queensland Storm in a thrilling tie-breaker. West Australia took the title in a tight 12-11 match over NSW Metro Green.

The U14 Boys’ will now compete for the Regional Championship for the remainder of the week under traditional softball rules.

NSW Country Gold play Queensland Storm and NSW Metro Green tomorrow.

ARTICLE BY DIANNE MCGOVEN