Three teams share top place in men’s softball

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33096, 11 December 1972, Page 21

Three teams share top place in men’s softball

With the 1-0 defeat of the co-leader, Richmond, by Papanui, a three-way battle has now developed for the senior men’s A grade softball championship.

The clash between Richmond and Papanui yesterday proved to be one of the tightest and most exciting seen at Papanui Domain for some time. A large crowd watched ash both teams struggled to get 1 batters on bases and the pat ] tern of play was three-up. three-down for both sides. 1 In the bottom of the sixth. | K. Smith, the Richmond < pitcher, reached third base J through an error, but he i failed to get home. < The breakthrough came in the top of the seventh when I the tall American, M. MeCombs (Papanui), reached first base with a clever bunt, c He got home when D. Eager hit a two-bagger over the

outfielders’ heads. Papanui’s win was a comeback for the team which dominated the senior competition last season. Papanui, United. and Richmond all have 24 points, but United has played one game less than the other two leaders. In the other game of its double-header, Papanui easily accounted for Deep Freeze, 7-1. A feature of the match was the good home runs hit bv G. Dunn and D. Phillips. United made the most of a spate of errors by Western Suburbs in the third innings to score four runs. These were the only runs scored in the tight game, and United’s win helped to consolidate its position at the top of the ladder. A game which also attracted some interest yesterday was the clash between the lowest placed teams, Papanui Aces and Somerfield. Poor batting let Somerfield down, and Aces scored its second win of the season, 7-1. D. Mansbridge (Aces) produced some good attacking batting and his home run in the second inn-1 ings was the highlight of the' game. It brought in two other: runners. There were no surprises in the games played on Saturday. But Aces almost caused an upset in the second game of its doubleheader. It had a good. 3-0, lead over Western Suburbs until Suburbs equalised in the fourth innings and scored the winning run to go 4-3 in the sixth. Aces lost its other game, 2-7, against Richmond. Papanui beat Somerfield. 6-2, in an uneventful match, and United was not too impressive in its 5-0 victory over Deep Freeze in the main game at English Park. Results of the games played at > Papanui Domain yesterday Were: I Papanui 1, Richmond 0; Papanui! 7. Deep Freeze 1; United 4. Western Suburbs 0; Papanui Aces 7. Somerfield 4. The points table is:—

Details of Saturday’s games:— ! United 5, C* ep Freeze 0 United showed little enthusiasm in this game and coasted to a lifeless victory over a! keener Deep Freeze team. In the first.two innings, both sides played similar softball, with one hit each. The only differ- |' ence was Bradbury’s pitching. He! had Deep Freeze three-up, threedown in the second innings with j three consecutive strike-outs. United opened the score in';

the third when J. Lawson got home on a hit by Bradbury, when J. Krawchuck dropped the; ball. Krawchuck made another mistake soon after and this j allowed D. Dawe to get home ‘ from second base. Another good hit by Bradbury i in the next, innings resulted in K. Thorne scoring. Deep Freeze’s new pitcher. G. Kukas, had been pitching well throughout the game, but his concentration lapsed a little in the sixth innings, which allowed 1 1 United to score some productive ! hits. B. Mountford got a threebagger. catching J. Gordon Out of position in the outfield. Mountford got home when Thorne hit a double. He also managed to get home on this due to two fielding errors. Bradbury also hit safely in the innings, but; could not make it past the plate., Bradbury’s pitching strength proved costly to Deep Freeze. He scored 11 strike outs, but gave four walks and had twoi hits taken from him. Kukas had one strike-out, conceded eight hits, but no walks. Papanui 6, Somerfield 2 1 At times Somerfield produced • ;

some excellent fielding, but then in the same innings it would .commit costly errors. Papanui did not seem too concerned at its slow pace with bat and steadily picked up runs throughout the match. J. Maule got on for Papanui in the third and he got around the bases following a bunt by A. I Sweat. Maule got home on a good safe hit by G. Dunn, who managed to score after a silly error by Somerfield. Papanui went further ahead in the fourth. G. Phillips hit a two-bagger with a solid drive. McCombs advanced Phillips to third with a good hit. Phillips scraped home after an error at third base and McCombs came in soon after on a two-bagger by L. Clarkson. One of the best hits of the 1

match was scored by M. Fit simons in the fifth innings. I was told by his coach, M. Be to play a nice and easy strol and he did just this along tl third base line. It brought lion G. Laing, who had got on wi a strong drive. Somerfield’s second run w. scored in the sixth innings wht A. McNeil scored on a good h by L. Tobeck. Papanui’s final runs wei scored by the pitcher, G Ro erts, in the fifth and K. Palern in the sixth. Before being replaced by 1\ Reid on the mound in the top < the sixth. G. Roberts score seven strike-outs and concede two safe hits. Reid took tw strikeouts. The Somerfield pitcher, I Hayes, scored two strike-outs an conceded 10 safe hits. Western Suburbs 4, Papanui Aces 3 Suburbs had another luck ?scape and had to come from b< lind to take the game. Bot earns kept the game tight, wit hree-up, three-down being th lattern of most of the play. M. Clarkson (Aces) got on b in error in the third and passei

’’the plate when D. Mansbridge hit 1 i to the right outfield. In the fourth, T. Bishop and A. Aust- ■ ing scored and Aces had a handy t 3-0 lead. 5 Suburbs fought back and produced the only highlights of the 1 match in the fourth innings. R. ! Johnston got on with a walk and • home on a great three-bagger by I R. Fife. Then M. McOscar ' clinched the match for Suburbs with a magnificent home run through the right field. This also brought in Fife. 1 It was then a case of three-up. three-down for both sides until ' the bottom of the sixth when R. Fife scored the winning run, after getting home on errors. The Suburbs pitcher. R. Fife, scored one strike-out and conceded a walk and two hits. Suburbs made six errors.

z- B Grimes (Aces) scored one. le;strike-out and gave up two walks: 1/and three hits. Aces made four! :e errors. le ; ie Richmond 7, Papanui Aces 2 h This match proved to be rather lifeless, with Richmond probabiv taking its chance of a win too jt much for granted. Both teams made a number of mistakes which did not help to brighten! _ Play. However. Richmond scored! consistently throughout the; , game and got players past thei •f E! ate 111 of s * x innings at cl bat- . G. Panagiotidis and K. Smith o scored in the first innings; D Chee got a home run in the second; Smith and Rea passed J the plate in the third; Smith again in the fifth and P. McFarlane in the sixth T. Bishop scored both of Aces’ cuns. He got home in the sec- ) ;ond through a hold-up throw and - again in the sixth. i D. Chee pitched for Richmond i and got tour strike-outs. Aces’' -’Pjteher, B. Grimes got only one; strike-out and conceded five safe! ■’■hits to Richmond.

P W L F A Pts. U nited 14 12 2 87 20 24 1 Papanui IS 12 3 70 23 24 ; Richmond 15 12 3 99 56 24 W. Subs 15 9 6 87 46 13 1 D. Freeze 15 3 12 70 112 6 S’field 15 2 13 44 116 4 [ Pap. Aces 15 2 13 38 123 4 1