The Australian Women’s Softball Team, Aussie Spirit, will get a good indication of how their Beijing medal prospects are tracking when they play the first of the two-part series against China in Brisbane on Friday nght.

Natalie Ward, Australia’s most capped female player, will lead the World number 3 ranked Australian side as they take on the number 4 ranked China in their first time back on the diamond since qualifying for the 2008 Olympics at the 2006 World Championship in Beijing.

It was there that the two teams last met with Australia defeating China 1-0 to advance into the bronze medal match against the USA through a home run from Stacey Porter.

Australian Coach Fabian Barlow said that “this series will be a great indicator for where we are at as a team 16 months out from Beijing and also provide an opportunity for the athletes to continue their strong domestic form and show that they can raise it to the international level that the China team will demand of us.”

It’s been a tough competition between Australia and China having played each other 75 times with Australia winning 45 of them.

China’s strength still remains in both offence and defense play and Australia will have to respond with error free games.

Australia’s pitchers will bring the power to the mound through Jocelyn McCallum (Queensland), Felicity Witt (New South Wales) who returns after a two year absence, and Zara Mee (New South Wales) who has shown some positive signs since her return from an extended break.

Australia will miss the powerhouse hitting of Stacey Porter who is unavailable because of her Macerata Softball Club (Italy) commitments, but Barlow remains confident that our world class hitters have the power that can provide Australia with the runs throughout the series.

“I am confident that despite not having a player like Stacey available to select for this series there are still quality international hitters throughout our line up with Tracey Mosley (Queensland), Sandy Allen (Queensland) and Nat Ward (New South Wales) just to name a few,” concluded Barlow.

Chelsea Forkin, an Under 19 Australian player who has been involved in the game for just over two years, has been selected into the Australia squad and will also bring good hitting power into the team.

The last of the two-part series will be held in Sydney from 20-21 April 2007.

Softball Australia