Jaks-United wins softball

Press, 1 October 1979, Page 26

Jaks-United wins softball

First prize of $l5O in the Jaks-United pre-season softball tournament at Nunweek Park over the week-end de—..pa’., went to the team that organised it. showed grand batting form, and, approprietely, its most experienced player, Bryan Mountford, took the tournament batting award with the exceptional average of .647 (11 hits from 17 turns at bat). Maurice Looser, the Tenderkist ''O'ago) catcher, was named “player of the tournament.”

United remained unbeaten throughout the five games and its performance greatly pleased the new coach, Dennis Rea. “You wouldn’t believe the same team lost to Lyttelton last week-end,” he . said. The team was in fact boosted by the return to Christchurch of Leon Fife

and the former New Zealand short-stop, Paul McFarlane, and it gratefully borrowed the services of Richmond’s Kevin Steel for the weekend. Steel collected six hits from his 12 turns at bat.

United had shut-out wins, over both the Marlborough Saints (1-0) and Hutt Valley Marist (4-0), though it could not be said that all its victories were achieved without trauma.

On Saturday United nearly lost grip of the game against Tenderkist (formerly Dodgers) after rattling on five runs in the first innings, with a Billy Rintoul centrefield homer responsible for two of them.

After that onslaught United failed to add to its total and by the end of the third innings Tenderkist had cut back the margin to 5-4 with Barry Simpson scoring twice and Peter Meredith and Graham Anderson once each. Leon Fife replaced Dave Bradbury on the pitching mound after four innings but further base-runners were in scoring positions before the match was completed. United was also given a fright in the final contest of the tournament having already made sure of first place.

Once again it started with a bang and led Jaks-City, 3-0, in the top of the first innings. However, City grabbed back two runs and | then went ahead 4-3 after

Jimmy Hall slammed a tworun homer in the bottom of i the second innings. With such a poweful bat- 1 ting line-up at its disposal 1 United was undeterred and i it added six runs (including < fine homers by Mia Toa and . Bryan Mountford) in the - fifth and sixth innings to go , out to a 9-4 lead. Even then, 1 though, City was not done 1 and it produced a four-run i rally in the bottom of the s sixth. Unfortunately for its 1 fans the underdog was three-up, three-down in the 1 seventh to lose 9-8. i A big total of 19 hits was I amassed by the two teams I with four of United’s 11 i coming from the bat of J Bryan Mountford in just I four trips to the batter’s i box. Paul McFarlane also < proved his worth with a .750 ' average (three out of four). 1 It was not a good tourna- < ment for the local team, Pa- 1 panui, which finished with a draw and four losses, though there were signs that things I were coming right in the I latter stages of the final 5 game against Tenderkist, the ! second place-getter. J Papanui threw away a 1 winning position against 4 City yesterday with a 6-1 S lead eventually turned into aid 7-8 loss. The damage was done in the top of the fifth j innings when Papanui’s big i hurler, Kevin Tuuta, con- 1 ceded eight hits — Keith J Pullar’s big two-run homer S started off a seven-run City rally. I Tuuta, together with Tony f

Bishop, Dale Eagar, and Mark Lynn batted well in this match. He struck a twobase home run and a twobagger for a .666 average only to suffer the indignity of being struck-out by Jimmy Hall’s sucker pitch — which ended the game — without swinging his bat. Previously Lynn had got back one run for Papanui and with men on first and second Tuuta was Papanui’s last hope. City had been well-beaten by Tenderkist in the first round of the tournament, being out-batted by eight to four with Barry Simpson and Peter Meredith in form for the Otago side. Much better touch was found against Marist in the Saturday afternoon game and tremendous home runs by Ray Marsh and the new recruit (from Albion), John Daly, helped City to a 5-2 win. Results. — Saturday.— Papanui 2, Hutt Valley Marist 2; JaksUnited 1, Marlborough Saints 0; Tenderkist (Otago) 9, Jaks-City 2; Jaks-City 5, Marist 2; Saints 4, Papanui 1; Jaks-United 5, Tenderkist 4; Jaks-United 8, Papanui 2; Saints 3, Jaks-City 1; Tenderkist 9, Marist 3. Sunday.— Jaks-City 8, Papanui 7; Jaks-United 4, Marist 0; Tenderkist 2, Saints 1; Tenderkist 7, Papanui 4; Jaks-United 9, Jaks-City 8; Saints 3, Marist 1. Final points.— JaksUnited 10, Tenderkist 8, Saints 6, Jaks-City 4, Pa-