Confidence against slow pitching

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 14

Confidence against slow pitching

(Specially written for "The Press' by Garry Ward)

' CAPE TOWN. The strong batting that has been a feature of the New Zealand softball team’s tour of South Africa should be maintained in the world championships. It was the failure of the New Zealanders to hit the ball well in Oklahoma City in 1968 that cost them any chance of finishing in the top three. The general thinking was that New Zealand could not hit the slow pitching that

was prevalent at Oklahoma City because the players were unprepared for this type of attack. Teams such as the Philippines and Japan, both of whom beat New Zealand, have pitchers who hurl at about the same speed as most of the pitchers that the New Zealanders have encountered in South Africa. In the first two games the tourists had trouble in adjusting to the slower speed of the pitches, but now the nits are coming from almost ev £ry New Zealander. Q * " e f act that they scored M 4 runs and had only six

scored against them in the first 11 games of the tour is a good indication of the team’s batting power. Particularly good batting form has been shown by B. McLean, C. Ward, B. Nichols, D. Cheyne and D. Sorenson. Home runs have been hit in almost every game, and two by McLean proved to be match-winners. The South African batters have had little success against the pitching of K. F. Herlihy, J. Dawson and O. Walford. Herlihy is, of course, the outstanding member of the trio and there are always gasps of astonishment when he sends down the first few pitches during his warm-up routine. The team has been most impressive in the field, although the high number of

strike-outs gained bv the pitchers means that there is not often a great deal of work to be done. There has been only one game in which errors crept into the New Zealand fielding. Against the lowly-rated Western Province team in Capetown, more opposing runners reached base than in any previous game. All of the errors were in the infield; the runners* stole second base regularly as P. Priddey was unable to throw accurately to allow tags to be made. It is apparent that the training will be intensified during the last week of the South African section of the tour, so that by the time the team reaches Manila for the world championships it will be prepared for the slower pitching nations.