Congratulations to our talented Pakuranga College baseball players, Simon Aukett in Year 9 and Messiah Tuhoro in Year 10, who have both been selected to play for the U15 New Zealand Baseball team taking on Guam at the end of November.
The team will travel to Guam to compete in the WBSC Oceania World Cup qualifying event against the hosts, with the winners booking a berth at the U15 Baseball World Cup in Taiwan in 2024.
This is the first time the boys have played in the same team, but not the first time they have represented New Zealand in baseball. In June, both travelled to Korea for the Baseball Little League Asia-Pacific Qualifiers Tournament, with Messiah representing the Junior U14 New Zealand team and Simon playing in the Intermediate U13 team. Both also play for the Howick Pakuranga Baseball Club.
In a very encouraging sign for the upcoming qualifiers, Messiah’s U14 team beat Guam by three runs, 4-1, at the tournament in Korea, a performance the U15 team will be working hard to emulate. Both Simon and Messiah are training up to six times a week individually, but with the team is spread throughout the country they won’t train together as a unit until they fly out.
The selection process for the team has been intense, with a 40-man squad named in April after trials at the University of Auckland and in Wellington. From there, 25 players continued with the squad after further trials in September. A final trial was held at the start of October, with 18 players named in the travelling team. Both Simon and Messiah have been named as pitchers, with Messiah also playing 1st base.
Good luck for Guam Simon and Messiah, we’ll be cheering for you!
