Bright women’s game

Press, 6 March 1978, Page 21

Bright women’s game

Six home runs punctuated an exciting match between Burnside , and Monowai when the two • | teams met in the women’s senior -A softball competition at Rugby 3 'Park on Saturday. Burnside in spite of pulling four runs back in the sixth in•'nings. had no answer for the -[more polished Monowai team, » and go north this week to a pair of national tournaments appar"lently sadly out of form. Albion staged a late rush to , beat Jaks-United after trailing 5 1 for much of the time in the •j early match at Rugby Park. : while Aorangi beat the young J Westen Suburbs combination. J [l5-12, in a high-scoring match at ■ the Polo grounds. Points after eight rounds: Monowai 14. Albion and Bum■side 10. Jaks-United and Aorangi .8. Western Suburbs 0. (Burnside ‘‘and Aorangi played a ninth•’round game last week. Burnside won. and thus has a match in hand in the quest for the Watson 5 Cup). Monowai 8, Burnside 6 Burnside showed a lot of pluck •j when it made a determined surge late in the match but Monowai had already established ‘ too handy a lead and ran out a ■•narrow winner. Monowai opened the scoring at J the bottom of the first innings ’’when the top batter. Carley scored on a hit from Nancey Beale. Burnside pegged the run i back in its next turn at bat when •! Jane Earnshaw, promoted to the [.team from the senior schoolgirls’ ;competition, crossed the plate on J a hit by Bernadette Straker. The Burnside pitcher. Ranui . iHapi. denied Monowai further 1 runs in the second, but her side i were ciuickly bundled out at the . I top of the third by a com- .; bination of excellent fielding by I Margaret Machirus and accurate pitching by Bev Mackinson. i Steady field work was comijolemented by two fine runs to : j Monowai in its third turn to bat. I Ann Wansborough had a safe hit Ito second, just sliding into the base ahead of Ruth Hepburn’s ’tag. She raced home a moment

later when Beale hit a mighty e home run to the outfield to eso tablish a lead of 3-1. r Burnside appeared to be all at y sea when confronted with the pitching of Mackinson, who must g rate as the most consistent in i- the competition, for the side e could not score until the sixth i, innings. By then Monowai had rj built a match-winning lead. ■-! First. Machirus scored a homer |to the outfield, and then Alison oiCoffey made first on an error, g f Wiki Martin also got to first ejbase. but was advanced to second on an overthrow. Coffey, poised g on third, raced home on a J sacrifice fly by Scott to enthut siastic applause, and she was foli lowed by Martin as Burnside ‘made several silly errors. Wansborough crossed for her i second run of the match to exg; tend the lead to 7-1. but Susan- . inah Carrol got one back for ei Burnside in the fifth. She drove r)|a ball to left field but the catchi ing chance was fumbled, and she gratefully ran on for a homer. Another home run was the <, next scoring shot by the New :i‘Zealand traillist. Penney King, t and her team-mate Hapi crossed i a little later when Earnshaw hit — a three-bagger to right field, She scored as well when Linda Shepl; herd hit the fifth homer of the [match as Mackinson was treated ,; to a spel of unaccustomed savagI ery. ‘ ! Phil McLean pulled a run back N for Monowai when she took the — sixth homer at the bottom of the '•‘.sixth innings, and when Burnside were kept scoreless at its last '[turn al bat. Monowai had won J the match. Only seven erros were made in p the whole match, an indication — of the high standard of play. Albion 9, Jakes-United 3 y I'he big-batting Albion side was e in the unusual position of being two runs down after four innings i- had elapsed, with not a single j score to its credit, when the re- . [liable pair of Lynley Watts and t Vicki Morgan opened its account ? to tie the match up with Jaks. si The runs must have served as t'a tonic to a lack-lustre Albion

yjside that had allowed itself to be'come bustled by United, who tjwere determined to pla, tight, e uncompromising softball. Albion Uenjoyed a seven-run glut in the E Inext turn at bat to clinch the i: match. Karen Lawson opened the scorning for Jaks at the top of the > I third when she crossed home £|base alter making first, second jiand third on fielders' choices i Good pitching from Fam Unain' i bers was preventing the Albion - batters from scoring, and Robbie - .McLaren distinguished herself in s|ngnt field witn several brilliant i catches. ri McLaren featured in the fifth 1 -.when she hit a long three baggei -jto centre field, and then came rihome on an error winch gave f he: an automatic base, to in (crease the Jaks' lead io 2-9. s Albion bounced back at the bottom of the fifth with the runs -.to Watts and Morgan, both com ‘ ing rrom . big drive bv Chris | [King. Jaks scored again in the J [Sixth when Marge Wong scored Jon a .Marg Cormack hit. but Al bion had nit top form and ran in ‘.seven runs in the next turn ai li bat ; i Chris Few. Danae Gooseman. ’(Sharon Constable. Wend\ Bell. Dianna Paki. W’atts. and King all , scored as Jaks began to make a ; few errors. Pam Chambers was ; Pitching well but getting hit. and t her sister, Vai Chambers, was in j jured in the outfield when trying to take a difficult catch. She was replaced by the coach, Heather J Thyne, but it was too late for the side to score the eight runs, needed for victory. ; Aorangi 15, Western Suburbs 12 Sj The Suburbs side played its s[best softball for the season when s.it went down to Aorangi at Hag--3 ley Park, but it was not quite - good enough to overcome a side 1 that has improved steadily week t by week. More determination was evi-. 5 dent in the Suburbs team, who i batted and fielded with vigour. B But Aorangi was well served by the pitcher. Wendy Iteta, and the big bat of Julie Turuwhenua who made three safe hits to the outfield in four turns at bat. , Surburbs ooened the scoring in the first innings when Jane Smith and Sharon Mansfield ran in. but runs to Turuwhenua. Gladys Kara. Chris Clothier, and Millie Hirama opened a slight lead for Aorangi. The team further increased its lead to. the bottom of the second when TuruwTenua and Dianne Temo scored, hut Suburbs tied it up in the third with runs toi Karen Knight, Chris Timms, Gay-( nor Waldron, and Monica Bar- ‘ clay. But Chris Lee won the lead ’ back for Aorangi in the third : and Clothier and Carol Popata [ made it 9-6 bv the fourth. Clo- ’ thier and Turuwhenua scored again in the fifth to eniov a com w fortable lead, but six runs in two innings won back the lead for Suburbs. . Sharon Mansfield and Knight got two in the sixth innings, and Kn’ght Timms. Smith and Suzette Eastmond. who had been I moved on to the c enior team ; from the schoolgirls grades. , made th A score 12-ri. Eastmond’s scorii-j hit w r as a homer to the t outfield, and Aorangi had to score at least twice to save the game. In fact, the side scored four runs, including a homer from Clothier. Her hit brought home . Temo, Kara, and Turuwhenua and clinched the match.