Jaks-United retains lead in men’s senior softball table

Press, 6 November 1978, Page 14

Jaks-United retains lead in men’s senior softball table

The men’s senior softball I championships had few surprises when double-headers (were played in cold windy weather at Nunweek Park on Saturday. Jaks-United retained its lead at the top of the table ‘ with two wins while Papanui ■ slipped into second place, two points behind the leaders. The games went as expected. although with an ! occasional surprise such as < lowly Lyttelton taking a 2-0 lead against Jaks-United in the first innings of the game land Western Suburbs I extending Papanui ter 10 inI nings before succumbing, i ,2-1. The more experienced I teams in the competition,. ; Jaks-United, Papanui, Richimond, and Jaks-United City.’ I all scored two wins.

Richmond 7, Lyttelton 1. | Lyttelton took an early! lead in the bottom of the! second innings when Craig | Thomson crossed the home! plate but it inspired Rich- j mond to reply in the top of' I the third when Greg Panagiotidis hit safely to first ; and next up Jon Johansson! hit a homer to bring Pan-1 agiotidis home. After that errors began to! icreep into Lyttelton’s game,' iallowing Richmond to take! control, with lan McNabb ’ scoring on errors in the| I fourth innings. Gary Lay and Alan Pennicott advanced Richmond’s i score to 5-1 in the top of j the sixth with the help of i errors and Richmond took a] firm grip on the game in the' seventh when it scored a{ I further two runners and! ■ ended the game wth bases I loaded.

I United City 2, Western Suburbs 0. Ray Marsh top of the bathing order for Jaks-United I City, ended Western SubI urbs’ hope of causing an ■ upset win when the game i went into extra innings by I scoring a home run. I The homer came m the I top of the eighth innings with City two down. A sub- [ stitute, Dave Birdling. hit a safe bunt and then Marsh I followed up with a home I run to make it 2-0. There was nothing between the teams earlier in the match, with both hurlers, Alan Hall for City and Colin Sutherland for Suburbs, pitching particularly well. Hall took 12 strikeouts and conceded one safe hit while Sutherland pitched nine strike-outs for five hits. Papanui 6, Burnham 0. Papanui had a great start in the bottom of the first innings when Tony Bishop at I the top of the batting order [ safe-hit to first base and was followed by his brother, [Gary, who hit safely for I first and made second on an error from the hit. Tony Bishop then scored an a passed ball, while Gary came home on a fielder’s choice. ■ Michael Bishop had the distinction of crossing the [ home plate three times for ‘Papanui. He also batted [ loot). Burnham had few chances. ; taking only three hits off Papanui and having 10 batiters struck-out. Jaks-United 3, Albion 1. Albion seemed to be reI taming its name as the “upset team” in the softball league when it scored right from the outset against the competition leader, Jaks-United. Pressure play by Albion enabled Vince Daly to cross the home plate and a further four runners managed to make bases in the innings. It took United until the bottom of the second to pull back the deficit, with Mark McFarlane and Dave Bradbui ry scoring on a mixture of i hits and errors. Warren i Keen [advanced the winning edge [in the bottom of the fourth [after a safe hit to first, [going to. Second on a hit By [Paul McFarlane, and making [ home on an error by the Al- : bion right-fielder, Darryl Daly. { Bradbury pitched well for [ United after a slow start, taking nine strike-outs for [four safe hits. In reply. [ Vince Daly managed three

strike-outs for seven hits and two walks. United-City 7, Burnham I The Citv pitcher. Alan Hall, had one of his best [games of the season so far, [striking out 18 Burnham [batters for two safe hits. I Burnham's solitary point 'by Alan Sinclair came initially from an error. , Citv took a handy lead in [the top of the third innings I when Murray Lanini, Rax • Marsh, Wayne Durey, and Alan Hall all scored but the [coach. Arnie Hall, who I I never seems to be satisfied [with any lead, got a further I three runs from his team in ’[the top of the sixth. 1 Papanui 2, Western Suburbs , 1 Papanui owes much to the determination of Gary Bishop in breaking the game in ~favour of his team when the '[match had been extended to 10 innings. | Bishop surprised the Suburbs defence by scampering Ito first base on a bunt and [the rest of the Papanui team ! rallied with a sacrifice bunt jby Gordon Phillips, a sacri- | fice hit by Dale Eagar, and a fast, low, safe hit by lan Saunders to left-field to bring him home. Papanui was unlucky not to score in the first with Tony and Gary Bishop on [ bases and it was not until the fourth that Michael Bis hop gave Papanui its first point, Western Suburbs were dangerous in the early in . nings. with Terry Coleman, Phil Claude, Bob Gordon, and John Walton all making bases in the top of the first innings. Then Mike Tyree rocked Papanui with a homer in the next innings. But although Suburbs held Papanui to 10 innings it had few other opportunities to score. Richmond 3, Albion 0 Poor fielding by Albion allowed Richmond to take a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third innings, a lead that it did not relinquish. Albion put up a Strohn struggle and in the top of the nex* innings was stung into putting five men on bases. But tags and a run ner’s interference stopped what was a great scoring chance. Richmond again seethed dangerous in the bottom of the fifth when Greg Pan agiotidis was tagged coming home and Doug Chee was left stranded on third base while Albion failed to make any real impression in spite of trying hard. Jaks-United 8, Lyttelton 3 Garth Sergison, the Lyttelton coach, suggested after the game that the line-up Jie used against Jaks-Unifi?d might become the permanent one because it played so well against the strong competition leaders. It took a Lyttelton schoolboy. Dean Couch, to show the elders in his side how to plav by batting 1000. Not cowed by the hurling of Canterbury’s leading pitcher, Dave Bradbury, Couch twice bunted, both times causing Bradbury to scramble for the ball, and in the seventh innings hitting a three-bagger, coming home on an overthrow from the outfield. Lyttelton also caused the United side to take more interest in the game by taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the first innings. United equalised in the bottom of the second and a homer by Paul McFarlane in the third gave it the lead. The pressure was on Lyttelton in the fourth when United went through its batting order to score a further five, including a homer by Tony Mountford.

P W L F Pts Jaks-Utd j 0 37 is 10 Papanui 5 4 1 12 4 8 Jaks-City > 3 j 31 14 6 Richmond 3 5 22 26 6 Albion 3 2 3 22 15 4 Western Subs S 1 4 18 19 Burnham 3 I ■ 13 28 'j Lyttelton 5 1 4 11 42 -