Nathan Murray, 18, of Birkdale has quite a collection of softball and baseball team uniforms.
And soon, he hopes to add an Australian softball uniform when he heads to Canberra as part of the Australian Under 18s softball squad in October. There he will learn skills at a development camp in a bid to make it to the Australian team.
Nathan has played as part of the Queensland team for a number of years and was noticed as part of this year’s team at a national meet in January in Perth.
Nathan graduated from Carmel College last year and has played as part of the school boys’ teams since age nine, for Ormiston, Sheldon and Carmel colleges. Last year, he captained the softball and baseball metropolitan east teams, taking the softball team to win the State titles.
His father Stephen Murray said he believed Nathan had a career in Queensland and Australian teams.
“He trains five nights a week – either at the gym, the club or on his own,” Stephen said.
Nathan plays for the Scorpions A reserve team and sometimes for the B’s A team as part of the Redlands Softball Club at Ormiston. On Saturday nights, he plays for the Ipswich Outlaws.
“He has quite a collection of uniforms. He just likes to play. One year, he played for nine teams in both sports,” Stephen said.
His mother Jennine said he initially wanted to play baseball and she took him to Ormiston where he played softball from the age of five.
“At first, he thought he was playing baseball. It was just convenient for us,” she said.
Nathan plays as an outfielder and first base and is known for his left-handed baseball pitching and left-handed batting for both sports.
“He’s also really fast. He can get around a diamond quickly,” Stephen said.
Nathan is currently coaching the Under 16 team at Ormiston, taking last year’s team to the semi-finals.
“It’s his way of giving back to a sport that has given him so much,” Stephen said.
