Softball team penalised

Press, 11 October 1976, Page 22

Softball team penalised

Even theugh Papanul had a very comfortable 10-0 win over Western Suburbs in senior men's softball on Saturday, it has not advanced its points total.

The 1975-76 champion is cetaln to lose two points because two team members failed to turn up for umpiring duties for an early afternoon game. Fortunately for Papanul though, the points loss will not be vital provided it wins the majority of Uic five remaining first-round games. At Papanui Domain the young Papanui Aces side were a trifle unlucky to lose, 1-2, to the more experienced Richmond in a very tense game of softball.

For a while it seemed that nothing would go right for City. In the first two innings two baserunners, Tony Mountford and Chris Vesty, were stranded on third and City trailed 1-2 going into th-e sixth innings. But in the end everything came together and the City coach, Arnie Hall, was particularly grateful for the good works of John Oorschot, a 17-year-old playing only his second senior game.

Oorschot had to bat up in the top of the sixth with men on second and third, two batters out and tire scores locked at 2-2. He was more than equal to the task, slamming a Vince Daly pitch to centre field for a single which brought home both base runners.

Albion started to crack at this stage and errors alloived two more home in this innings. Three more runs followed in the last allowing City a deceptively easy win.

Daly pitched very- well in the first few innings fanned three successive City batters in the top of the second after Vesty, the first up, had a mighty three base hit. However he tired and conceded seven hits in the last two innings. ■Albion’s runs came from Gary Prebble in the bottom of the fourth and Gerald Hammar in the bottom of the fifth — both originally made first with safe hits.

Gary Lawrence, the City catcher, was easily the most consistent batter After being struck-out on his first trip to the batter's box he settled into a groove and hit safely in all of his three remaining appearances.

Roger Hutton and Alan Hall both batted 500 for City with two flats out of a possible four. Hall had the best of the pitching duel, fanning 11 of the 26 batters he faced and conceding five hits. Daly finished with six strike-outs and gave awav 11 hits.

Richmond 2, Papanui Aces 1 The Aces catcher, Brian Dunn, is unlikely to have very affectionate memories of this game. He was struck-out twice, gave away a base because of "catcher’s interference” and let in the winning run in the top of the fourth with a passed ball. The Aces started off the scoring in spectacular fashion when Andy Ahmu, the lead-off batter,

Mt Kelly' Smith for * splendid heme run to right field. Richmond failed to reply until the top of the fourth when Smith was scored in by Gary Lay. This run levelled the scores but it was the next innings which really added spice to the game. Doug Baker batted up for Richmond with one down and made third base after his safe hit was followed by tw o wild pitches from Geofl' Roberts. Robin Te Maari then bunted foul on his third strike for the second out but Roberts walked Kevin Gillon and gained a further base when Dunn's mitt was judged to have touched Tony Hansen’s bat.

Shortly afterwards Doug Baker came home for what proved to be the final run of the game after a passed ball. The Aces tried very hard to level the scores but managed to get only Roberts and Wai Williams on base in its remaining Innings. Smith and Roberts both conceded five safe hits but the Aces pitcher had the most strike-outs with nine against eight. United Ascot 4, Somerfield 2 Somerfield could justifiably take pride in going so close to a team which normally crushes it in five innings. United had a run-scoring spree in the bottom of the third when Mark McFarlane. Duncan Daw, Billy Rintoul and Bryan Mountford all came home but was unable to add to its score In three more innings. Someriield looked a more confident side than normal with Haydn Smith pitching quite tidily and it was only just shaded in the batting, managing three hits against United’s four. A feature of the game was the high percentage of big hits. Leon Fife and Douglas Honey both managed ihree-baggers for United while Marty Fitzsimons did likewise for Somerfield and Rar Marsh hit a double. Somerfield came together best in the top of the tilled when successive batters. Marsh and Doug Jury, came home and Fitzsimons was narrowly tagged at home after fatally slowing at third as he rounded the diamond. Two players figured very prominently in the outs. As well as taking four strike-outs. Haydn Smith fielded hits from his pitching very effectively to get rid of five other United batters on first. Duncan Daw took five good catches In the outfield for United. Leon Fife was an adequate replacement for Bradbury on the United pitching mound, managing eight strike-outs and giving away just the three hits. Papanui 10, Western Suburbs 0 Suburbs failed to go the full distance for the second time in succession and kept Papanui scoreless in only the fifth innings of a six innings game. Onlv two Suburbs batters, Terry Coleman and Mike Haystoii, hit safely and its fielders made six errors in a rather nervous performance. Several batters shone for Papanui with Dave Patterson, Chris McDonald and Tony Bishop all achieving a .668 average with two hits out of three. Bishop had a two-bagger and a three-bagger in his total. _ . _ , Murrav Reid and Kevin Tuuta shared the pitching for Papanui with three innings on the mound each. Reid had four strike-outs and gave away the two hits while Tuuta managed three strike-outs in an accurate display.

Points table PU P W L F A Richmond 2 2 0 9 3 4 U nlted 2 2 0 15 2 4 United-City .. 2 0 15 4 4 Papanui 'f 2 0 14 2 2 Albion 2 0 2 4 13 0 Papanui Aces 2 0 2 3 a 0 Somerfield 2 0 2 4 ii 0 West Subs 2 0 2 0 21 0 United-City 9, Albion 2