Softball Senior Men’s Contests Continue

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29745, 12 February 1962, Page 14

Softball Senior Men’s Contests Continue

The senior men’s softball competitions continued in ideal conditions on Saturday with Linwood firming its grasp on its first championship win. All the games were keenly contested and although scores were high, some fine softball was seen. Results were: Linwood 12, Kaiapoi 5. Richmond 11, Christchurch 3 Papanui 12, United 6. United v. Papanui United showed spirit and some hard hitting ability to contain Papanui throughout. Only in the last innings was Papanui able to improve on a two-run lead it had precariously held throughout the game. United started Ute game with P. Ross pitching. He lobbed up slow deliveries that had the overconfident Papanui batters swinging for the fence and hitting catches that the United fielders accepted in fine style. Changing Ross for the faster pitching of Davis proved to be a good tactical move by United. It stopped Papanui scoring for three consecutive innings until the seventh, when with two outs, Papanui forced errors with hard hits and ran away with the game. Bottom of the competition. United played one of its best games and really

showed the form of which it is capable. An unfortunate feature of the game was the persistent heckling of the umpires by Papanui. After only moderate control of the game, the umpire (Mr S. Whittington) ordered off G. Senior, and the latter minutes of the game were played in a far healthier atmosphere. Linwood v. Kaiapoi Linwood, which has appeared to be coasting in recent games, had little trouble with the Kaiapoi nine and won quite easily. Batting first, Kaiapoi had the sa listaction of seeing its first batter, N. Gray, on first base with a good hit. Wright hit on and forced Gray out at second base. Haw-ker forced Wright out, and R. Gibson ended the innings with a ground-out. Linwood, with Trueman and Hooper on bases, was held scoreless in its first innings. Kaiapoi lost Anderson, Andrews and Mcßratney, to finish the second innings abruptly. Whittington drove away a clean hit for Linwood, and the next three batters all hit on base to give Linwood three runs for the innings. The Kaiapoi pitcher. King, was first on for his side, and was followed by a powerful hit from T. Roberts. Then poor batting frittered away the chance of runs, and the Innings ended with the runners left cn bases

Campbell, the second baseman for Linwood, cracked a threebase hit to centre field, and Whittington hit in the run with a shot tn the same place. Green hit a catch to the short-stop. Gray, and Linwood was held to one run for the innings and a game total of four.

Anderson dropped a nice placement into a gap. but Andrews hit a slow one that Lnwood turned into a fine piece of fielding between Hooper and Campbell to relay Anderson out at second base. Andrews, running hard, made first base m time to prevent a double play. Mcßratney claimed an unintentional walk King drove one at the first baseman. who fumbled the ball, to allow Andrews home tor Kaiapoi's first run. Hooper, who played some accomplished softball at the shortstop position for Linwood, clean hit a fast ball from King. Whittington. who batted particular!v well, added another hit. and with a well-blended assortment of short hits and drives to the outfield Linwood scored six runs to take complete control of the game In the fourth innings. Kaiapoi was hitting quite well, but could not arrange a batting pattern to produce runs, and was out for no addition in the fifth and sixth frames. Bridgeman and O'Neil both scored Linwood runs in the fifth innings, with Linwood hitting freely. Roberts collected his second hit for Kaiapoi. and was followed on to bases bv Gray, on a hit, and Wright, on a walk. Hawker scored a home run. Gibson was caught out in right field. Anderson was caught by the pitcher. Ba'lantyne. and the game ended vf.h Linwood not required to bat its last inning*