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Date: May 02 2012
Holly Bartholomew's drought-breaking home run at Hawker yesterday kept the ACT under-17 girls team in contention to continue Canberra's stranglehold on the national softball championships.
Bartholomew smashed the only over-the-fence home run of the schoolgirls championships to help her side beat Victoria 7-3.
Canberra's senior men's and women's teams have dominated their respective competitions for almost a decade and now the juniors are trying to emulate their success.
The under-17 team is playing at the championships at Hawker, which finish on Saturday.
The ACT is third on the ladder and will get a chance to qualify for the final after beating Queensland and Victoria yesterday.
NSW and Queensland have showcased their dominance early in the championship, with both sides having only lost one game each.
Despite Canberra's success on the national and international stage, participation in the junior ranks has dropped in recent years.
Softball ACT chief executive Michael Thomson said the influx of major softball events in the capital could be an opportunity to attract new players to the sport. ''We've had a drop-off in numbers in the past couple of years and have been trying to increase the profile of softball in Canberra … hosting major events like national titles will hopefully help,'' he said.
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