The New Zealand Black Sox are focusing on winning the ISF Oceania Softball Qualifiers which are being held on the North Shore against Samoa and Australia.
Te Kāea caught up with the defending world champions to see how they're feeling before the two day competition that starts tomorrow.
After nearly a year of training, the Black Sox hard work will be seen in less than 24 hours at the ISF Oceania Softball Qualifiers.
Tyson Byrne of Ngāti Porou says, “I’m very excited, I think the boys have done the hard work to make sure we get the job done this weekend.”
The AWF Sports Stadium on the North Shore will play host to Australia and Samoa, in a two day qualifier starting tomorrow
“It’s an awesome feeling coming back here, this is where we won gold in 2013, so the feeling is very much a great feeling, to be in front of our family again,” says Byrne.
The Black Sox are the current World Champions and are looking to gain a place in the World Championships once more.
Their biggest rival is Australia, the third placed team in the World, and Samoa, who are placed 7th.
Sadly, for one of these teams, only 2 teams can go to the World Championships.
Byrne says, “We need to take care of business here this weekend to make sure we qualify and secondly we want to win this thing.”
The qualifier will start tomorrow afternoon, with the first game between Australia and Samoa.