Hall pitches first no-hitter of season

Press, 27 November 1980, Page 27

Hall pitches first no-hitter of season

Alan Hall pitched the first no-hitter of the season when Bumside took only five innings to thrash Lyttelton, 12-0, in senior men’s softball i at Papanui Domain on Tuesdav evening. Hall, having his third successive shut-out game on the mound, sallowed only one batter to make first base — and that was on an infield error. He struck-out nine of the 16 batters he faced. The front-running Bumside team scored three runs in the top of the second innings, two more in the third, and a massive seven in the fifth when a replacement pitcher. Dean Couch, walked five batters in a row. Highlights of the eight hits Burnside extracted were a sweetly timed centre-field homer by Alan Hall in the third innings and the perfect 1000 (three singles) batting average of the captain, Keith Pullar. Wayne Poore batted .666. In the match on the skin diamond A.G.C. United took

a 2-0 decision over Rich- | mond even though that' > team’s centre-fielder, Kevin | Steel, had three turns at bat! .-nd hit safely on each occa-. ■ sion. I ■ Richmond, just shaded by! six to five on the hit count,! ; had its opportunities but| ; twice runners were found •wanting by the powerful! • arm of the United catcher,! ! Bryan Mountford, on at- j tempted steals to second. ■ , Colin Sutherland took nine! ! strike-outs for United, con- ; ceding hits to Steel (3), ■ Tony Hansen, and Roy Ahi •Kuoi. Tony Mountford was ' United’s batting star, hitting ;■ home Paul McFarlane in the* ;bottom of the fourth innings! ■and then Bryan Mountford' in the bottom cf the sixth, i :Maia Toa was also in great! form, batting 1000 with two’; .hits and a walk. Points:— Burnside 22, United 16,! Papanui 10, Lyttelton 10, | Western Suburbs 8, Rich-| mond 2.