Softball leader defeated

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32802, 30 December 1971, Page 2

Softball leader defeated

(Prom Our Own Reporter)

AUCKLAND.

Auckland toppled Hutt Valley from its place as outright leader of the Beatty Cup men’s interprovincial softball championship at Hobson Paris, Auckland, yesterday. The host province beat the cup favourite, 4-1, and is now in first equal position with Hutt Valley, with seven wins each. Hutt Valley had a lucky reprieve from another loss when it came from 0-4 down against Wellington, tied the ' game in the sixth innings, 1 and scored the winning runs [ at the top of the seventh. . Canterbury completed the section play as the fifth ranked team nationally when I it beat Otago, 6-4. In addition to Auckland, . Hutt Valley and Canterbury, I the title-holder, Wellington, I with six wins, Hawke’s Bay, .five, and Otago, three, also i qualified. One of the surprises has ■ been the eclipse of the Southi land side which has finished i among the top four teams in all recent tournaments. It : gained only two section wins, • and with Nelson and i Wanganui, which was fifth s last season, has been rele- • gated to the Headifen Trophy second section, where it will

also meet Waikato, Manawatu and Counties. A home run in the first innings by M. Dormer with two men. on bases helped Auckland to its great win over Hutt Valley. In the Hutt Valley-Wellington clash, M. O’Donoghue and W. P. Baldwin scored the winning runs in the seventh. Canterbury 6, Otago 4 A home run at the top of the seventh innings, with a man on base, by the catcher and captain, D. Phillips, enabled Canterbury to beat Otago. The teams had been tied at four-all from the fifth innings. Otago had taken a 2-0 lead in the first innings when G. Panagiotidis gained first base on an error and L. Matheson hit safely. They both scored when Canterbury’s pitcher, G. A. Roberts, overthrew first base after a bunt from N. Pasco.

B. W. Mountford, in the second innings, cut Otago’s head with a home run, but Canterbury had to wait until the fifth for its next score. Ulen, C. N. Chee’s hit to right-field scored G. Dunn and the fleet-footed D. Daw with two down. D. Rea brought Chee home with a drive through first base to give Canterbury the lead for the first time, at 4-2. However, Otago tied the game in its fifth innings when the Canterbury centrefielder, D. Daw, overthrew third base after recoving L.

Matheson’s hit, allowing Panagiotidis to score, and when'Matheson scored from a wild pitch. After Phillips’s home run, Panagiotidis and L. Matheson loaded second and first bases at the bottom of the seventh innings, with one down. However, Roberts was able to retire Pasco and M. Looser to ensure Canterbury’s victory. Phillips (three), Mountford and Chee (two), D. Egar, G. Dunn, Rea and Roberts contributed to Canterbury’s total of 11 hits. Otago gained eight. Roberts took four strikeouts and conceded one walk and eight hits for Canterbury, and Pasco gained three strike-outs and conceded 11 hits. Hawke’s Bay 9, Canterbury 7 A steady flow of errors and passed balls proved a disastrous combination for Canterbury when it out-batted Hawke’s Bay, 10-8, and lost the match. C. N. Chee, who uncharacteristically made a number of bad mistakes, and T. Clifton, who was unable to hold many of G. A. Roberts’s pitches, were the main contributors to the total of 16 mistakes. At the top of the first innings, a hit by J. D. P. Taitoko, the former Maori All Black, scored a run after a dropped third strike and two passed balls. With two down, A. Gillies’s hit to Egar at right field, added the second run, and Egar's overthrow allowed the third.

However, Canterbury responded immediately. Phillips’s ground drive to centre field was fumbled by the double All Black, W. F. Davis, and scored Chee and Rea. Roberts’s centre field hit brought Phillips home to tie the game. Then the Canterbury pitcher was able to score on B. W. Mountford’s sacrifice grounder to second base to give his side the lead. Another dropped third strike with two down helped Hawke’s Bay to tie the game in the third innings. S. Glasspole scored the run when Chee dropped a simple fly hit by Davis. A left field hit by G. Arnold was converted into a tworun homer when P. J. Morel slipped over in the fourth, and two consecutive errors by Chee and a hit by Davis increased the lead to 9-4 in the fifth. Canterbury regained some prestige when Roberts batted Chee home in the fifth and Rea and Phillips drove out hits and scored at the bottom of the seventh. Canterbury was forced to make four infield positional changes when Clifton retired hurt with a wrist injury. With two of its catchers, Clifton and R. Winfrey, who has a leg injury, and a pitcher, P. Spillane, with a shoulder injury, all hurt, • Canterbury now faces a serious shortage of fit players in these vital positions. The team will meet Wellington and Auckland in the first day of the final play-offs today.