Papanui and United share softball lead

Press, 15 November 1976, Page 24

Papanui and United share softball lead

Papanu! and United-1 Ascot had good work- 1 outs for their big clash next week-end with convincing wins in the latest round of senior men’s softball on Saturday. Both teams impressed . with powerful batting while shutting out their opponents. Ascot amassed 11 hits while humbling Richmond 8-0. Papanui collected 12 hits on the way to beating UnitedCity 6-0. City had its chances against unbeaten Papanui.j An incredible eight batters 1 were left on base but there was no doubt about the bet-' ter team. Papanui's stars were two! Canterbury representative! squad members, Dale Eagar and Chris McDonald. They batted with supreme confidence to get four safe hits from just four trips to the batter’s box. Features of Ascot’s batting were some remarkably wellexecuted bunts and some lovely placements over the infield. Duncan Daw hit his first home run of the season.

.1 Its coach, Mike Nalepa, called bunt plays for batter after batter in the bottom of the second innings and four runs were scored. Nalepa explained that the ploy introduced the element of surprise and kept their opponents guessing, never , sure what the Ascot batters ; were going to do. In the late game at the ; Hagley Park polo grounds, ' Western Suburbs withstood ' a very strong late challenge bv Albion to record its sec- ’ ohd win of the Saturday . competition. ’ At Papanui Domain, Bob ii Brown’s Somerfield kept the ’ Papanui Aces at the bottom •| of the points table with a ;2-l win in a very closely (fought game.

United-Ascot 3, Richmond 0 Once bunting had paid sweet dividens for Ascot, its batters cut loose and seven safe hits were registered in the last four innings.

The Canterbury player-coach, Brvan Mountford, was in particularly good form after a slightly disappointing start to the season. He had the ultimate batting average with three hits in as many attempts. Eight of the other 11 batters used had one safe hit each. Richmond’s batters tried hard to get Dave Bradbury away. But Greg Panagiotidis was the only one to hit safely, although first base was reached five times altogether, three times on w’alks. Panagiotidis was the only Richmond batter who really looked like scoring. In the top of the first innings, as the lead-off batter, he was walked and then stole both second and third bases. But Bradbury struck-out Doug Chee and induced Kelly Smith to fly out to centre-field to end the innings. The Ascot pitcher, Bradbury, finished the match with 11 strikeouts from the 25 batters he faced. Smith struck-out one Ascot batter. One of the nicest little pieces of the contest came late in the game when Leon Fife hit hard to the infield. The youthful second baseman, Tony Hansen, stopped the ball wonderfully Then while seated he threw surprisingly accurately to first base. But it was undoubtedly Ascot’s game. Nalepa could well be pleased with his players for a batting performance which will need to be repeated next Saturday. Papanui 6, United-City 0 This was rather an unusual game with a former Western Suburbs player, Red Mansfield, coaching Papanui; an incorrectly marked diamond; and the outfield fence too close to the batter’s box. When the game was only seconds old a tape measure had to be taken out to the pitching mound to correct the distance from the home plate. Minutes

later Eric Tomlinson had to 1 brake at second base because a ( huge hit went over the fence first bounce, denying him the i home run he deserved. 1 Other features of the game i were the alleged “charging” by a base runner, Alan Hall, which I provoked a brief dialogue be- i tween the coaches and an illegal ■ pitch call on Murray Reid (Papanui) by the base umpire, Bryan Mountford. Reid, who hurled for five innings, finished with two strikeouts and conceded four hits. His Papanui team-mate, Kevin Tuuta, struck-out two and gave up a hit to Tiny Lawrence. Hall had six srike-outs for City, pitching quite well but unlucky to strike McDonald and Eagar in determined moods. Safe hits for City were gathered by Hall, Tiny Lawrence (two out of three), Gary Lawrence and Chris Vesty, the intrepid first baseman. But a feature of the batting was the failure of the short-stop, Paul ' Emms, to get a safe hit for the first time in six games. While Eagar and McDonald both batted 1000 for Papanui it was the former Southlander, McDonald, who particularly impressed. He hit the ball with a power which intimidated the City infield. Eagar did not smite the ball quite so hard, but nevertheless he placed it extremely intelligently. Reid looked in good touch on the pitching mound. As always, one or two opposing batters were fooled by ms “sucker” ball. Six of the City batters, including Tony Mountford and Tiny Lawrence twice each, made second base but none of them was able to proceed safely past there. Western Suburbs 4 Albion 2 There was an audible sigh of relief from the Western Suburbs team in the top of the seventh innings when second base-man, Shaf van Ballekom, took a catch from the bat of Albion’s Alnsley Quested to end the game. Suburbs w-ere ahead 4-0 without much trouble when Albion came into bat in the top of the seventh. But they were rudely shocked when Ken Stove and John Daly crossed the homeplate after Stove gained first on an error and Daly was given a walk. A safe hit by Vince Daly brought Stove home. After Craig Quested was struck-out, an error by the Suburbs’ first baseman, Vince Edwards, allowed Tai to make first, John Daly come home and Vince Daly to make third. But the top of the Albion batting order had a miserable day. Joe Beyers was struck-out and Alnsley Quested was caught by Ballekom—with that Albion’s chance to equalise ended. For Suburbs, Mark Hayston gained his first run of the season. His replacement. Vince

Edwards, a pinch-hitter, also gained his first. Suburbs out-batted its opponents by six safe hits to three, while Colin Sutherland iSuburbs) took eight strike-outs to Vince Daly’s five. Also of note was the brilliant catching by Albion’s second base-man, Gary Prebble, who stopped two certain safehits. Somerfield 2, Papanui Aces 1 Infield errors cost the Aces their first win when they appeared to have the situation in control as the end of the game came near. “When the pressure goes on we don’t seem to have that little bit extra that’s needed,” said the coach, Trevor Chapman. The Aces had taken the lead in the top of the sixth innings when Andy Ahmu scored on a passed ball after originally making base when a Hadyn Smith pitch hit him. But it was only minutes before Somerfield struck back fatally with runs to Keith Easton and Craig Thompson. A bad throw from third base saw Easton score and another infield error allowed Thompson to follow suit. Joe Reihana had the impressive tally of 10 strike-outs foi the Aces, but he spoilt this e little by letting two Somerfield batters make base after bein: hit by pitches—he was called seven times for illegal pitches The Somerfield pitcher, Hadyn Smith, had eight strike-outs and like Reihana. had six hits taken off him. Smith and Easton batted best for Somerfield while Ahmu, who made at least third base in every innings he batted, and Reihana shone for the Aces.

POINTS TABLE P W L F A Pts United-Ascot 6 6 0 45 3 12 Papanui 6 6 0 39 6 10 Richmond 6 4 2 23 17 8 United-City 6 3 3 23 24 6 Somerfield 6 2 4 21 22 4 West. Subs 6 2 4 16 48 4 Albion 6 1 5 9 31 2 Papanui Aces 6 0 6 13 36 0