Burnside retains perfect record

Press, 2 November 1981, Page 32

Burnside retains perfect record

It- took successive errors by the Papanui infield in extra innings before Burnside could score the run needed to preserve its perfect record in senior A men’s softball at Papanui Domain on Saturday. The 1-0 scoreline gave Bumside its fifth shut-out wjn in as many matches — but the co-competition leader had easily its toughest game to date before prevailing in the bottom, of the eighth innings. . .. Robert Tangaroa continued his pitching success by amassing 19 strike-outs. In the eighth innings, he finally lapsed just a little and conceded a two-bagger to Papanui’s short-stop, Dave Claude. That was the first hit he had given away this season after facing 65 batters. The other unbeaten team is A.G.C. Finance United, which scored a 3-1 win over Western Suburbs ' on the former’s home ground at the Western ball park in Westminster Street. There was joy in the Wheke camp when that team recorded its first senior A win, a 7-5 result against Albion in one of the early games at Papanui Domain.

On the grounds of enthusiasm alone the largely unknown Wheke side deserved this first victory of the season. The coach, Mr Don Lanini, says the players really work hard for him. “There are never less than 13 at training,” he said. . Wheke’s player of the match was one of its three American Deep Freeze boys, Alex Bennett, who fielded capably at first base and hit safely three times in four turns at bat including a big three-bagger clouted into the pinetrees. Colin Dixon, the captain (2), Jimmy Tuhua, the pitcher (2), Willy Nicholas, Sam Adams, and Mike Hinkley also contributed to the hit tally of 10. Albion equalled that Wheke hit count with Pat Adamson (3), Shaf Ballekon (2), and Ihi “Blue” Brown (2) getting the bulk of them. Adamson hit safely on each of the first three times he got into the box. With Adamson getting his swing into the groove early, and he, Van Ballekon, and Mike Moore stringing together hits in the top of the second innings, Albion briefly enjoyed a 4-2 lead.

Wheke took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the second innings and matched Albion’s run in the fourth innings with two of its own in the same frame to gain the 7-5 lead held until the end. Wheke looked relaxed in the field and this was perhaps typified by the one-handed catch an outfielder took to end the game. Papanui 2, Richmond 0 A bold rally by Richmond in the bottom of the seventh innings threatened Papanui’s seemingly safe lead in this contest. One batter was walked, two got safe hits, and when Kevin Steel was allowed to escape from a “hot box” between first and second base it seemed that ‘ Papanui was on the verge of cracking.

Fortunately for Papanui the last batter, Rene Rietveld, was thrown out at first base and Richmond runners were left to languish on second and third..

Papanui had- gained its two-ruh advantage as early as the top of the second innings after successive "bloopers” to the outfield by Steve Vivian and Mark Lynn. Rennie Tai and Vivian were the players to cross the home plate.

After that Papanui’s batting faltered a bit and it never really looked like scoring again until the top of the sevehth, when runners were stranded on second and third bases. Papanui outbatted Richmond oy seven hits to three, Garry Bishop (Papanui) and Kees Roetveld (Richmond) both getting .666 averages for their respective Generally, the Papanui pitcher, .Colin Sutherland, kept a tight rein on the opposing batters and after Kees Rietveld’s mis-hit safe hit 15 Richmond batters in a row were denied a claim on first base territory. He struck-out 10 of the 24 batters he faced. Kevin Steel, the Richmond centre-fielder, took an excellent catch from a booming Dale Eager drive halfway through the game and later on Eagar himself made a fine catch, diving, to his left at first base? . . AGC -United 3, Western Suburbs 1. United’s ’ pitcher, Daye Bradbury, was the key man of the team when he struck out nine of the 24 Suburbs batters he faced. In the batting United made little impression on Suburbs. Bradbury opened for United in the top of the third innings when he made first on a walk, and came home on a sate hit by Warren Keen. United’s lead was consolidated in the next innings when Leop. Fife and Tony Mountford - scored, Jamie Waretint was tagged af home plate, and a further two United batters made bases. Suburbs came back strongly in the fifth innings, when Eric Tomlinson, the lead-off batter, hit a line drive through the right field and was hit around by Andy Smith and Tom Reihana, both of whom made base safely. A fast drive by Dale Lanini eluded the outstretched gloves of three United in-fielders, and only the strong arm of Mark McFarlane, the centre outfielder, prevented Andy Smith from adding to Suburbs solitary point when he accurately threw to Mountford on home-plate to make the tag. Western Suburbs 4, Lyttelton 2 Dale Lanini was the toast of the Suburbs side when he scored its opening run from an initial error by a fielder, and went on to bat 500 out of three turns. Lyttelton struck early when its opening batter, Ross Fife, crossed home-plate in the bottom of the first innings, but Suburbs equalised in the top of the second when Lanini came home on errors.

The game remained uneventfully even until the.. top of the seventh, when Suburbs’ batter, Mark Hays-;• ton, open the innings with a ’ walk and advanced to second i on a passed ball. ‘ Eric Tomlinson made first on an error, and Lanini hit a ; two-bagger which brought Hayston home. Tomlinson and Lanini were hit home on . an Andy Smith hit which was . errored in the outfield. J

Lyttelton batted well in the bottom of the same ( innings. Brian Collins, Lyttelton’s opening batter, hit ; safely for first base, and advanced to third on passed balls, A Brodie Downie hit. dropped neatly in “the hole,” just beyond the in-field,, which scored Collins. An error by Reihana, off a hit by Ben Te Kara, allowed ‘ Downie to make third and Te‘, Karu second, and gave Lyttelton the opportunity of' going into extra innings. However, Paul Emms, Suburbs’ third baseman, ended Lyttelton’s hopes when... he took a reflex catch off a hit by Steyen Guest. ; Noel Leeming Burnside 1, Papanui 0 Burnside had numerous chances to establish its dominance on this game. But it.took all of 96min before the first run finally came through the catcher, John Daly. Ironically, the first man who should .have taken the third out was. the Papanui short-stop, Dave Claude, who badly fumbled a hit by Wayne Poore. Claude had been in great form in that position with one of his outs being a superb running and diving catch that brought praise from even the opposition’s supporters. Better batting would have brought Bumside runs in each of its first three innings. On the first two occasions a runner was left on third base, while in the bottom of the third innings the bases were loaded when Colin Sutherland “fanned" Wayne Poore. Opportunities for Papanui to score came only through errors as “Chub” Tangaroa was weaving a spell on the blue-and-gold batters with his speed pitching. Tangaroa struck-out eight of the first 11 batters he faced and finished with a tally of 19 “ks” — easily the highest this season — while-giving away only two walks and a hit. No Papanui batter got safely any further than second base although five of them stayed in that spot. Bumside deserved the win. The hit count was a decisive seven to one in favour of Bumside with Michael Hall batting two out of four and his brother, Alan, Tangaroa, Daly, Graeme Anderson, and Keith Pullar also helping out.

SOFTBALL w L D F A Pt ALBION' 5 5 0 44 0 10 GENERAL LEE BURNSIDE 5 5 0 40 12 10 MONOWAI 6 4 2 45 36 8 A;G.C. UNITED 5' 1 4 17 35 2 PAPANUI 6 I 5. 24 63 2 WESTERN SUBURBS .. 5 0 5 12 30 0 POINTS TABLE P W L F A Pt United 6 6 — 38 7 12 Burnside 5 5 — 41 0 10 Papanui 5 3 2 20 8 • 6 W. Suburbs 6 3 3 24 21 6 Lyttelton 4 1 3 15 19 2 Richmond 5 1 4 10 36 2 Wheke 5 1 4 10 37 2 Albion 4 4 7 37 0 Wheke 7 , Albion 5