Nationals attract 27 baseball, softball teams
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Twenty-seven teams from 14 provinces will take part in the National Baseball & Softball Championship beginning here on Sunday, the organizing committee said.
The week-long event will crown champions in men's baseball, men's softball and women's softball. In addition, Perbasasi, the country's baseball and softball managing body, hopes to use the championship to discover players for national teams.
"We hope the teams in the field will yield players good enough for the national team," Harry Trisnadi, Perbasasi's official in charge of development affairs, said on Tuesday.
Papua, which is participating only in the softball events, was the first contingent to arrive for the event. Also taking part only in the two softball events are North Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan.
South Sumatra, West Java, East Java and Jakarta will compete in all three competitions. Lampung, Central Java and Banten will send baseball teams along with either a men's or women's softball teams, while Yogyakarta will feature only in the baseball competition.
Suryo Adi Prasetyo, a Perbasasi official, said eight provinces had decided to skip the tournament due to financial constraints. Among the absentees is Central Kalimantan, which won the 2002 junior baseball event.
The teams will be divided into two pools. The top two baseball teams in each pool will qualify for the semifinals, where teams from different pools will play each other for a place in the final.
The softball competition will adopt a page system, in which there will be a playoff to decide the grand final entrants.
Harry said the tournament should help Indonesia in the next Asian competition.
"We will have to prepare immediately after the tournament for the Asian softball championship in Manila in May," he said.
"We also will be trying to keep our baseball team in the Asian first division when we take part in the competition in Sapporo, Japan, in October," he said.