Men’s Softball Deep Freeze In Upset Win

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 10

Men’s Softball Deep Freeze In Upset Win

In spite of the damp conditions the second round of the men’s softball competition produced some good games and two upsets.

Deep Freeze, in its first game of the season, made no race of it over the last innings against Spreydon. and Papanui, playing strongly, took the decision over the highly-rated Avon side. Richmond beat United as expected. Results. —Papanui 6, Avon 1; Richmond 11, United 0; Deep Freeze 5, Spreydon 1. Points with two rounds completed are: Richmond 2, Avon, Papanui, Spreydon, Deep Freeze 1, United and Suburbs 0. Papanui v. Avon Papanui scored two runs In the first innings and this virtually won the game. Avon after this made little effort to score and floundered in a morass of misfielding with six recorded erros which exactly equated the i Papanui runs. The pitcher, Clarkson, who last week meekly submitted a seven-run lead to Richmond and lost the game, was a different player against Avon. Full of resolution and purpose, he beat off what little fingerholds Avon was able to win and swung the ball across the plate with dismissals coming almost on cue. The Papanui fielding was adequate to the few demands the Avon batting made on it. W. Anderton in centre field made one memorable catch of a surely struck ball from McKenzie that seemed to be a home until

Anderton backhanded it for a spectacular catch. Anderton, with two safe hits, also led the batting with B. Chee, Pollock, Cooper and L. Clarkson all gaining one hit. Bridgeman, Campbell and Whittington were the only Avon players to hit on base with the last two batting an inexplicable five and six position in the batting list. Deep Freeze v. Spreydon The Spreydon pitcher, R. Lewis, would be one of the most confident players in Canterbury softball, but after this game he must be a sadly disillusioned man. Dominating the game until the sixth innings, Lewis had cut a swathe through the Deep Freeze batters with some fine pitching. Then Keim and Thornsley started a batting brush fire that Spreydon regarded almost with indulgence until the pitcher, Foley, hit through left field and had runners racing in all direction to pass the now paltry Spreydon total of one run and tally an exciting five runs to win the game. The power of the last ditch batting from Deep Freeze will be a sobering influence on opposition strategy in future Fielding was adequate with throwing plays of notable accuracy. Richmond v. United United demonstrated its fragility against a half-hearted Richmond side. Hanging on in early innings it looked to be a rival for Richmond but once Richmond batters applied the pressure with bursts and infield bunts United collapsed. The pitcher, Smith, dealt with the sitting ducks of the United batting list in expected fashion, but the game was a shoddy piece of fielding ineptness and ill humour.