softball Papanui’s errors cost it second spot

Press, 12 February 1979, Page 20

softball Papanui’s errors cost it second spot

Errors cost Papanui dearly, when it lost 0-2 to Jaks-United! City at Papanui Domain on Saturday. and had to relinquish second place in the senior men's softball competition. Both the run-scorers for City— Ray Marsh <fourth innings) and Keith Pullar (fifth)—originally made base on infield errors and, strangely, the mistakes were made by the usually reliable Bishop brothers, Garry and Tony. Apart from one crashing double by Murray Lanini which scored Pullar, City's batting was nothing spectacular-four hits—but the strong Papanui line-up was more disappointing; just three hits., and two of these were rather dubious. Jaks-United still has a twopoint lead in the competition after its 5-1 win over Western Suburbs at Nunweek Park. The victory, though decisive, was more through fielding errors; than hits by Jaks. Outright second place is now! held by Richmond, which at one; stage looked in real danger of! losing to Lyttelton, a younger side visibily keen on extending' its giant-killing reputation after| it upset Papanui a week earlier.; Lyttelton led 3-1 after the top! of the fifth innings, and although! Richmond managed to tie up the scores in the bottom of the fifth! the favoured team took another' itwo Innings—and a good hit by!

the veteran. Greg Panagiotidis—to clinch the match, 4-3.

The other match set for Albion and Burnham at Rugby Park has been deferred because most of the Army boys were on

‘’manoeuvres. ” Three “town’’ Burnham players arrived, unaware of their team mates’ commitments. POINTS TABLE W L F A Pts Jaks-United .. 5 0 29 3 10 Richmond .. 4 I 18 17 8 Papanui .. 3 2 30 15 6 Jaks-City .. 3 2 11 9 6 Albion .. 22 17 20 4 Lyttelton .. 2 3 21 32 4 West. Subs. .. 1 4 11 21 2 Burnham ..0 4 4 25 0 Jaks-United City 2, Papanui 0 Geoff Roberts gave one of his best displays of the season for Papanui. striking out eight of the first 11 batters he faced. A minor tragedy was that he did not receive the support from the field that he deserved. The first run came in the bottom of the fourth innings when Marsh hit a line drive through the legs of Garry Bishop on first base for a two-bagger, advanced to third after some indecision in the outfield, and came home when “Jimmy" Hall belted a drive into the turf at the Papanui second baseman, Wai Williams. One run was bad enough for the Papanui batters to chase and the situation was compounded just on an innings later when a Tony Bishop fumble at shortstop eased Pullar on to first base, in good position to be scored by Lanini’s hit that came soon afterwards.

Papanui, in reply, could offer little when the crunch came, and the last six batters all failed to reach base: thus it was unnecessary for City to use its last turn at bat.

Papanui had had runners on first and second with only one down in the fop of the second innings but a lovely double-play by Lanini (a fine catch followed by a headlong dive on to second base for a tag) ended the chance.

Three innings later Roberts hit a good single, but he was eventually taken out on third base. When the innings ended two Papanui batters stranded. Roberts easily had the better of the pitchers' duel with Alan Hall, taking 11 strikeouts to his opposite number's three. Richmond 4, Lyttelton 3 This was a good effort by Lyttelton. which opened its score in the top of the second innings when Doug Baker whacked a Roy Ah Kuoi pitch over the head of the right-outfielder for a home run.

Richmond showed little flair in Its first two innings, though one good hit. was caught beautifully by Doug Collins at left field, but an equalising run did come in the bottom of the third when

Gary Lay scored in Laurie Laujrenson. i ’Die port lads rallied again and {runs went to the pitcher. John ! Koitier ton a fielder's choice', in the top of the fourth and Gary JCopsey ton a wild pilch) an innings later. Runs from Graham Smith and La> brought the teams hack to level pegging at 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth and then stalemate prevailed for another two innings. The Richmond batting finally “clicked'’ when Smith, La\. and Panagiotidis strung hits together — the last of these brought a jubilant Smith home. Ah Kuoi generally pitched quite, well for Richmond for his 10 strikeouts, and gave up four hits. However, he also walked ; two batters and struck two others with a pitch and too often his indiscretions came at crucial times. Richmond eventually chalked iup seven hits off Kottier, who i had been difficult to get away in the early stages. Kevin Steel and Lay both had .666 averages, while Ah Kuoi was the unlucky victim of two excellent outfield catches, b\ Doug Collins and Brian Collins. Baker was outstanding for Lyttelton with a home run, a single, and a sacrifice bunt for the perfect 1000 average. The other hits were collected by Copsey and Kottier. Jaks/United 5, Western Suburbs ' Western Suburbs’ second baseIman. Terry Coleman, must have I regretted stepping on to the field bx the end of this game.

He missed fly-ball catches twice and the errors proved costly, Jaks/United runners coming • home each time.

Jaks wasted no time and I scored three runners in the top {of the first innings. Paul McFarlane, Dave Dol.ies, and Billy RinI toui. All were helped b> errors. I Suburbs nearlx scored in the bottom of the first when John Walton hit a line drive to right field which touched the glove of first ba=eman. Warren Keen before heading into the out field.

Walton and the United side hesitated, waiting for the umpire to call foul, but when he did not Walton, found his legs and sprinted around to third base. However, Bob Gordon was walked and Colin Sutherland failed to make the necessary hit to score.

1 Mark McFarlane scored in the top of the second, but United had to wait until the seventh be fore another runner, substitute Dave Bradbury, came home.

Suburbs’ single run came when Phil Claude crossed home plate ion a great hit by Greg Timms. ' Haydyn Smith took six strikelouts for four safe hits and a I walk for United, while his opposite number, Colin Sutherland, (offered up six hits and a walk i for four strike-puts.