Softball Jaks-United beaten —a hollow win for Richmond?

Press, 26 November 1979, Page 21

Softball Jaks-United beaten —a hollow win for Richmond?

Jaks United was beaten for the | first time in the senior men's softball competition when it i went down, 2-4, against Richmond at the Papanui Domain on Saturday. ■ But it would seem that Jaks;United deliberately threw the I game away because it would prefer to meet Richmond than Papanui in the “Best of Three” .games on December 15.

Dave Bradbury. United’s top pitcher, and also the best hurler Jin Canterbury, was rested in the Richmond-United encounter bej cause of strained tendons to his I non-pitching arm, although he ■ pitched in an earlier game against Lyttelton. Leon Fife who pitched for United in the game against Richmond, took the unusual decision of batting first after winning the toss.

! He explained later that United had decided to bat first because the new balls used in each game were initially hard to pitch. “That’s the official explanation anyway,” he said. POINTS TABLE P W L F A Pts Jaks-United 10 9 1 53 12 18 Papanui 11 9 2 50 19 18 Richmond 11 8 3 40 38 16 W. Suburbs 10 4 6 28 37 8

1 Lyttelton 11 4 7 32 54 8 2 Jaks-City 10 3 7 41 36 6 2 Albion 11 0 11 25 73 0 Richmond 4, Jaks-United 2 t It looked as though United was off to a determined start in the top of the first innings when s the lead-off batter, Paul McFar-i lane, hit a two-bagger, and made third base on a passed ball. But: his team-mates were shut out. Richmond took its three runs

1 in the bottom of the second innlings when Kevin Steel made a ■ sate hit and then stole second base. Tony Hanson then placed a safe hit “in the hole” between the infield and the outfield to advance Steel to thhd. Laurie Laurenson cracked a three-bagger to centre field to bring Steel and Hanson home, and. he crossed home plate on a sacrifice bunt by Ken Frost: United collected its first point in the top of the fourth innings when Mark McFarlane hit a home run over the right outfield, and Warren Keen added another point in the filth innings i when he hit a three-bagger and! came home on a safe hit by McFarlane. The demand for another point from Richmond by the player- I coach, Greg Panagiotidis, was: dutifully produced when Doug Chee scored in the top of the! sixth: Pitching for Richmond, Roy Ah Kuoi took two strike-outs for six! hits, while Fife hurled three! “Ks” for six safe hits. Papanui 1, Richmond 0 Richmond almost opened the scoring in the top of the first when Paul Emms made a safe hit for first base and then stole second. A wild pitch advanced him to third, but with one batter down, the team was given out when the next two batters were struck out. The solitary point in the game came in the bottom of the first innings when Papanui's lead-off batter, Tony Bishop, hit a twobagger and advanced to third when his brother. Garv, made a . sacrifice bunt. Gordon Phillips 1 then hit Tony Bishop home. Both teams had scoring oppor- 1 tunities after that, but failed to 1 capitalise on them. Frost made 1 third base for Richmond in the

■ top of the third innings, and Papanui’s Kevin fuuta reached the same base in the bottom ot the same Innings. Geoff Roberts achieved similar status for Papanui in the next innings Pitching for Papanui. Geoff I “Rocky" Roberts, took eight strike-outs for three hits, and . Roy Ah Kuoi took a single strikeout for four safe hits and a walk i for Papanui. Jaks-United 3, Lyttelton 1 United lacked its usual sparkle in its encounter with Lyttelton. ! Mark McFarlane made the initial i burst for Jaks in the bottom of - the second innings when he crossed home-plate, and the next two points came in the 4th inmings when Mia Toa and Keen scored, (he latter coming in off a ■ three-bagger by Dave Bradbury. Lyttelton came close to scoring lin the lop of the sixth innings (when Doug Baker hit a three- 1 : bagger, but he was tagged on! I home-plate by the catcher, Bryan: :Mountford. But the replacement! | batter, Dennis Wiersma, gained Lyttelton its solitary point in the I seventh innings when he made a safe hit and was hit home on a sacrifice hit by Craig van Dugteren. Jaks United-City 8, Albion 2 City seemed determined not to let the ball game slip away from it this time like it did last week when Richmond beat it, 7-6, after City was up, 6-3, at one stage. A threat by the City coach, Arnie Hall, to “drag” his son , Michael (“Jimmy”), if he tried to hit the ball out of the park did' not seem to have much effect. I Jimmy batted 1000, including two' bunts and one three-bagger ! Arnie’s other son. Alan, hit ai homer, while the newcomer, Lindsay Anderson, really proved J his worth by fielding well from 1 ' third-base, and hitting 750.

Strangely, Arnie Hall “dragged Alan from the pitcaing mound after the fifth innings in spite of some good pitching, inearning seven strike-outs from 17 batters faced for two hits and a walk. His replacement. Hadvn Smith, took t«o “K’s” and two walks. Albion opened the scoring in the top of the first when And' Ruruku hit a tbree-bagger, and

was hit home by Jamie Waretin: Bruce Radford gave Albion itother points in the sixth innings Pitching for Albion. Vince Dab offered up 14 safe hits for feur strike-outs and one walk. Papanui 6, Lyttelton 3. Tony Bishop continued to show his worth at being top of the batting order for Papanui. He batted a 1000 and came home three times, while Dale Eagar secured a homer in the bottom of the second innings. Lyttelton came back stronglv in the sixth innings when Doug Baker. Ross Fife, and Garrv Copsey (two-bag hit) all crossed home-plate. Western Suburbs 3, Albion 1 Western Suburbs almost scored in the top of the first innings when Phil Claude made a twobase hit, but was tagged trying to make home. In the bottom of the same innings Darryl Dalv made a safe hit to first base, and an overthrow to second base on which he was trying a steal allowed him to come home. In the sixth 'innings, Terrv Coleman made first on a safe lit. and was scored by a threelugger from Mike Tyree. Tvree n turn crossed home-plate off a lit by David Claude. In the pitching battle. Suburbs’! Colin Sutherland took 10 strike-! >uts for five safe hits, and Al-1 lion’s Vince Daly conceded three safe hits for six strike-outs.