Softball Albion shows leading form

Press, 6 October 1980, Page 19

Softball Albion shows leading form

Ground conditions and the weather were far front perfect when tlie senior women's softball, competition began at Hagley Park on Saturday. The grass was too long and errors occurred as infielders misjudged the pace of hits. Baserunners also had to watch their footing. In the outfield the bounce was unpredictable. Monowai’s speedy lel't-lieldcr. Catherine Elite, came in at one stage to stop a likely one-bagger but 1 lie ball leaped over here head and the hit stretched another base. One of Hie teams on show was last season's national club! champion, Albion, which will I again be difficult to beat. With Chert) Kemp holding the West-! ern Suburbs batters in thrall,! Albion went out to a 9-0 lead, but an onslaught later brought the opposition five deserved runs. Burnside, another likely leading contender, won both its games. It was without its popular captain. Linda Shepherd, who had a "date” at St Mary’s. Merivale, with the Avon premier rower. Derek Manning. United 12, Monowai 10 Nearly half the runs came in the first innings of the two teams. United led out with three runs from three good hits and then Monowai went ahead with no fewer than 12 batters up to the box. producing seven runs among them from four hits and five errors. Alison Mathias’s big three-bagger over right-field was a highlight. Monowai did not manage another run until Phil Mac Lean’s left-field homer in the bottom of the fourth. United got in front 10-8 after its sixth innings brought five base-runners across the home plate. Five successive batters came' up with hits and Heather Craig accounted for three of the runs with a homer over leftfield. In the bottom of the sixth Monowai managed to tie up the game with runs front Margaret Machirus and Anne Wansborough, only for United’s Craig to hit home the winning runs. In spite of its fielding United

! deserved to win, out-batting by. t 15 hits to eight. Craig finished ■ with the excellent a\ erage of ' .800 (four hits out of five) and Christine Clothier .600, and the I newly promoted Kerry Hall > i-BOOi also contributed well. ! Wansborough did best tor' • Monowai with her two hits out I of four made up of a triple and! i a double. Burnside 11, ■ Burnside Red Sox 0 Not 100 much could be expec-f ! ted from the young Red sox' team al this stage of its debuti season and the game was over jin five innings. . Red Sox managed three hits! (from Ra Hapi's pitching and; Sherri Shoenborn batted WOO I with a three-base hit and al J single. Sharon Chalmers snared] , tlie other. Shoenborn. aged 16. an, American Field Service scholar! . at Papanui High School, fielded; at third base and should be an| asset to the team. Burnside collected seven hits and Hie former New Zealand captain, Robyn Storer, had the top average of .666 la home run and a two-bagger,. Storer’s centre-field homer was struck witli effortless ease in a second innings burst from. Burnside which ’ brought seven runs. Jane Earnshaw (two). Hapi and Vai Jardine also contributed to Bumside’s tally. Albion 9, Western Suburbs 5 Albion’s superiority was undoubted in tills game, thanks to the New Zealand hurler,

Kemp, who struck-out 14 of the 31 batters she faced, and batting which produced 16 hits. Still, Albion must have been a little worried in the last three innings as the Suburbs’ batters (previously swatting hopefully at Kemp’s pitches) finally hit well. Millie Hirama hit with power for a three-bagger and a twobagger. Caroline Rennie. Sharon Mansfield, and Sharon Sunderland also helped the revival. Down 0-9. Suburbs rallied with a four-run burst in the bottom of the) sixtli iNicki Hudson, Rennie. Mansfield and Hirama) and one more in the seventh from tlie substitute, Karen Knight. Danae Goosman (.750) led a

. sizeable list of safe hitters from Albion with Christine Tew (.500). Penny Salton t. 500). Kemp 1.400) and Sharon Constable (.400; the best of the others. Burnside 18, United 9 ! Features of tlie high-seoring ' game were tHe far too frequent I errors and tl)e fact that a team I went right through its batting | order on three oeeastons. I Burnside made three sticeesI sive errors in the top of the l first innings and. senerally. i Storer had an uneomfortabie i time at short-stop. Fortunately ] for Burnside those three initial j errors (from three different I fielders) cost only two runs. Burnside managed file rum I (aided by four United errors) : in a long stint at the batter’s i box in tlie bottom of the second ; innings. | Another below-par fielding ; effort by Burnside in the top of | of the fourth innings helped 11 United batters to the box and it was perhaps fortunate that only five, runs resulted with the bases loaded again at the end. That took United ahead. 9-7. but it was unable to seo'-e again as Burnside tidied its act. Burnside’s win was sure after its nine-run rally (from five good bits) in the bottom of the fourth to go 16-9 in front. Burnside finished with 13 hits to United’s 10. The winning team’s hits were spread among eight batters. Storer again led the wav with three hits out of 'five (.600) and Earnshaw, Anthea Feaver. Bridget Corcoran and Gaye Forward picked up two each. Sue McLeay nut a classic bunt down the first base line.

The team’s pitcher, Hapi, did not collect a safe hit, but managed to get on base four times and persuaded her United counterpart. Wendy Heta (formerly with United), to walk her on three successive occasions. For United. Jan Van De Worp and Emma Richards both collected two safe hits and six other batters had single hits.