Wellington Baseball President Regan Wood has been appointed as General Manager of the Auckland Tuatara and will start effective immediately as the franchise prepares for a second season in the Australian Baseball League.

Wood has spent significant time with the Tuatara during their inaugural season and brings a wealth of baseball experience and business acumen to the organisation.

His baseball prowess saw him represent New Zealand in the inaugural national side in the early 1990’s

Wood will be taking the position left by Ryan Flynn, who will be focusing solely on the upcoming qualifications for the Olympics and the ever-increasing international program of Baseball New Zealand.

"I am looking forward to the challenge of leading the Tuatara into their second season in the ABL, and am grateful to know that I need only to walk a few steps to Ryan's office for his input," Wood said.

"The team made a great impression in their debut season and the staff did a wonderful job in an extremely short amount of time to set this franchise up. With the lessons we’ve learned from our first experience of professional baseball, we hope to be able to capitalise on that with a further year of experience, and we look forward to carrying on the momentum the Tuatara has already built." Wood added.

Wood’s first actions in the new role will be to immediately begin to lock in the coaching staff, and sign a core group of players.

Announcements regarding that are expected in the coming weeks.

Article added: Friday 24 May 2019