Auck. colts win softball

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 24

Auck. colts win softball

By

TIM DUNBAR

Auckland players engulfed’ their pitcher, Steve Jackson,; after the 7-2 defeat of Hutt I Valley in the final of the | national colts, softball tour-! nament at Lincoln College yesterday but their action told only half of the story. Certainly Jackson hurled most capably in keeping Hutt hitless tn all but two! of their seven innings but! the major reason for the I decisiveness of the victory, ; was some poor infielding. { (Altogether the Hutt players’ made six errors and a ugh. proportion of these directly

resulted in runs to the oppo- ; sition. I Auckland managed three 1 runs in the first innings alone with the top-of-the- ■ order batter, Warwick. Rogers, getting home on an ! error when a John Ryd- t wanski hit bounced off Is Laurie McLennan’s leg and 11 the short-stop Malcolm j 1 Jones then belted a two-run j I 'homer through right field. ‘ This margin was certainly! still within the reach of’! 'Hutt , but the likelihood of. ithat team making a success-1 ful comeback dropped away! ■almost completely after’. ! Richard Humphreys and I ; ’John Whitefield came home!! ion errors in the bottom of' the second innings to matte [the score 5-0. i A further two base-run-i ;ners, Steve Jackson and’! I Terry Willis, scored on;' i errors — one when the first l { i baseman lifted his foot — in| .the fourth while Hutt re-' mained scoreless until the top of the seventh innings. ; Hutt had had a great ’ chance of getting back into ; the game in the top of the I fourth when it strung three 1 hits together. When Brian Green singled, Allan Jen-’’ nings actually crossed the!’ home plate but Steve Marsh running to second was called ' out for interference and the 1 run disallowed. In the first six innings ! Jackson had restricted the ' Hutt batters to just three! hits but they came to light] in the last frame with! singles from Marsh, Green I

and Alan Taylor, and the first two named scored in a last futile fling. As well as performing well on the pitching mound Jackson batted 1000 with a hit and two walks. Jennings and Green both had .666 averages for Hutt with two hits and helped their side to out-bat Auckland by six *o four. Green, who also batted [very well in the semi-finals, had recovered remarkably .quickly from a collison at first base the day before which had left him concussed and with a split I above the eye that required ■four stitches. In the morning’s semifinals there had been two ’very close games, with Hutt ’just getting home, 4-3, ’against Hawke’s Bay and Auckland only just accounting for Wairarapa, 1-0. 1 Hutt’s game with Bay was tied up at the end of the second innings after a home run over left-field by the Bay captain, Alan Blair, and the score remained at 1-1 into extra innings. It seemed that Hutt had the game sewn up when it [scored three runs after two hits and two errors in the top of the ninth but the Bay did not give up. The game ended with Bay’s pitcher and top batter, Mark Taylor, flying out short-stop .but by this time the deficit [had been reduced to a single run after Brian Smith had (scored in Tiki Heather and

.Blair and Smith made third base before the third out. In the other semi-final, Jackson was in superb touch, striking out 10 of the 21 Wairarapa batters he faced; the only one to get on first base made it that far after an ’ error. Auckland managed five safe hits — including two by Terry Willis — but the only run came in the bottom of the third innings when a ’ Rydwanski double brought in! ! Willis. ; Fifth and sixth places were I decided unofficially soon after the semi-finals when Canterbury beat Wellington, 4-0, in a “friendly” game over five innings. Results:— Semi-finals.—Auckland 1. Wairarapa 0: Hutt Valley 4. Hawke's Bay 3. Final: Auckland 7. Hutt Valley 2. Play-off to decide last two places tn top section for 1979.— Manawatu 10. Rotorua 2; Otago 6. Southland 3.

Play-off for seventh and eighth places.— Manawatu 2. Otago 1.