Swift seventh innings defeat

Press, 23 November 1981, Page 19

Swift seventh innings defeat

The A.G.C. United bench was a sorrowful sight after its game agaisnt Monowai in the senior women’s softball competition on Saturday. After leading, 10-2, up until the seventh innings it eventually lost, 10-11. General Lee Burnside had two good wins, the first against United by the margin of 10-0 and the second a 10-5 victory against Papanui. Albion ■ continued its winning way with a 5-0 success over Western Suburbs which turned on probably its most polished performance of the season. t POINTS TABLE P W D L F A Pt Albion 9 9 0 0 64 2 18 G L Burn 9 8 0 1 68 20 16 Monowai 9 6 0 3 67 61 12 A.G.C. Utd 10 2 0 8 44 72 4 West Sub 8 2 0 6* 30 42 4 Papanui 11 1 0 10 36 110 2 Monowai 11, A.G.C. United 10 : United slowly built up its 10 1 runs throughout the game and was heading for an impressive I

victory over Monowai when all hopes were suddenly dashed at the bottom of the seventh innings. Monowai had never really looked like scoring excpet in the third innings when Phil Mac Lean hit a home run and was followed shortly after by Margaret Machirus. In a seemingly impossible position at its last turn at bat the coach, Nancy Beale, substituted herself as lead-off batter and Monowai then proceeded almost nonchalantly to race through its order. With two down Monowai still required two runs to tie the game when Grace Tuavera hit safely to centre field witn Beale next to bat. The game looked over as Beale grounded the ball to the infieid. but it was errored leaving both Tuavera and Beale on base. Monowai’s catcher, Maria Hoetjes, then blasted a threebagger to score the equalising

runs. Kathryn 'Eiffe then hit a perfectly placed outfield hit to score Hoetjes giving Monowai a well-fought victory. General Lee Burnside 10, A.G.C. United 0 In its first game of the day Burnside was no match for United and took out the game in five innings. Robyn Storer and Jane Earnshaw turned on what is now almost a weekly performance in crossing home plate in the first innings. In the third innings Earnshaw powered a home run and was followed across the plate by Ra Hapi and Linda Manning. The fourth innings produced another tour runs for Burnside. The catcher, Marilyn Lee, started the scoring off with a safe left field hit, and again was followed by the Storer-Earnshaw duo. Manning scored the fourth run of the innings and United’s fate tvas sealed when the designated hitter, Gaye Forward, scored.

For A.G.C. United the only batter to consistently put bat to ball was the pitcher. Ema Richards, who finished the game with a perfect average of 1000. Albion 5, Western Suburbs 0 In previous encounters Albion has walked away a clear victor, but a good fielding performance by Western Suburbs contained the strong opposing batting lineup. For Albion. Linda O’Cain and Nat Hazelwood opened the scoring in tne first innings. But it was not until the fourth innigns that Albion could score a further two runs when Rose McGill and Cheryl Kernp crossed home plate. The final run came when Hazelwood scored her second run off a safe hit from Penny Salton. The closest Western Suburbs came to scoring was in the fourth innings when Sue McCullough hit safely but was taken out on a fielder’s choice leaving Gordon on first. Carolyn Rennie then late cut a ball to right field where it was errored and

Suburbs had runners on first and second. Kemp then struck-out the next batter squashing any hopes Suburbs had of scoring a run off Albion. General Lee Burnside 10, Papanui 5 As has been the case with every Burnside-Papanui encounter this season the young Papanui side turned on a polished performance, but was unable to sustain the pressure. Papanui opened the scoring in the first innings when the pitcher, Chris John, crossed home plate alter hitting a twobagger. Burnside replied with Robyn Storer. Jane Earnshaw and Ra Hapi all scoring. Papanui then came back to equalize with Lynne Griffiths and Sharron Chalmers scoring. The game see-sawed for another two innings until Burnside finally asserted itself with the bat while its field contained the Papanui batters.