The 22-year-old right-hander has cemented her place on second base in the Vic Titans starting line-up for the summer-long series, which began last weekend in Sydney.

Bulger played in five of her team’s six matches throughout the first round of the carnival and finished as the Titans’ top-ranked batter.

Victoria came away with a 2-4 record, defeating teams from South Australia and New Zealand, but going down to the ACT, Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.

They will be looking for an improvement when the second round of matches begins in Melbourne on December 11.

Bulger made her debut for the Victorian open team in early 2008 after representing her state in various under-age teams. Her efforts in last year’s Gilley’s Shield competition were rewarded with a six-month softball scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport, which she took up in February.

Bulger worked hard on her batting during her time with the program.

She had batted both left and right-handed at various stages of her career, and was encouraged by AIS coaches to return to her right-handed stance.

Australian women’s softball coach Fabian Barlow said her scholarship had not been renewed for the following six months, following the return of several top players from overseas leagues for the summer.

But he said Bulger was still very much in the national selectors’ sights.

“We rate her highly defensively and if she can get her batting to be consistent, she has got a good chance of re-entering the AIS program or making the Australian team down the track,” Barlow said.

“We have told her that just because she was a non-selection, doesn’t mean there is no interest.

“We have high hopes for her.”