By JARROD POTTER
BASKETBALL’S loss is softball’s gain as Lyndhurst Secondary College slugger Mikaela Spencer has flourished in her new sport.
Spencer transferred from basketball, where she had played representative basketball for the Dandenong Rangers, to the softball diamond a few years ago and hasn’t looked back – starring in her new sport and impressing the Victorian selectors in the School Sports Victoria under-17 softball trials to give her a second shot at winning a national championship.
Spencer said her love for basketball waned as her passion for softball increased and she was glad she made the choice to focus on the bat-and-ball.
“With basketball, I just got sort of bored of it and I’ve been playing it for so long and after a while I thought I needed a change,” Spencer said.
“I used to play there for about three years – started playing softball about three years ago and picked it up later once I stopped basketball.
“My dad (Darren) played softball as well and he was like ’why don’t you give it a try’ and I gave it a try and loved it.”
Making the state softball team twice has been a great honour for the 16-year-old from Cranbourne, and she hopes her second School Sport Victoria (SSV) campaign at the nationals bears better success than last year’s championships in Perth.
“We went to Perth last year for the tournament,” Spencer said.
“We didn’t do too well, but we didn’t come last which is good.
There was probably one great highlight – I played well against Queensland and got a good hit, which was great.”
The third base specialist plies her juniors’ softball at Pinewood Rebels in the Dandenong Softball Association while playing senior women for Southern Knights and she wanted to thank her parents – Darren and Karen – for their support.
The School Sport Australia Softball Championships is being held in Blacktown, New South Wales, from 3-10 May.
