Big hits put Burnside in titles

Press, 21 December 1981, Page 3

Big hits put Burnside in titles

Two mighty clouts at Papanui Domain yesterday by the Burnside infielder, Michael Hall, have ensured his softball team a place in the Pan Am club nationals next March.

Hall sent two towering hits over the outfield fence, 65 metres away, for automatic home runs as the Noel Leem-ing-sponsored team eclipsed A.G.C. United, 5-0, in the match, and became the Canterbury representative at the Pan Am. The first Hall home run came in a two-down rally at the bottom of the third innings. His team-mates were ecstatic, all coming out of the dugout to slap him on the back while Mr Arnold Hall was jumping up and down in the coach’s box.. In the seventh frame Hall repeated his huge hit — afterfalling only a metre or two short in the sixth — and the - United pitcher, Dave Brad-;, bury, urged on the right outfielder,. Ray Marsh, with a joking request to "stand on the fence.” That homer also scored in Glyn Eades. Earlier in the innings the United fielding had packed up with three bad errors and that combined with a Robert Tangaroa double helped Burnside to two more runs. Like Burnside, United had •four runners left on base and the fielders initiated two fine double plays, but the errors, and Hall’s two collossal hits, ruined their chances. Paul McFarlane, who batted .666, was left on third base in the bottom of the first innings and the “arm” of Hall just had Leon Fife out in the fifth as he strived for the home plate. Tangaroa, who had needed massage treatment for his injured neck in the morning, took five strike-outs and conceded hits only to United’s Paul McFarlane (2) and Jamie Waratini. Michael Hall (2), Alan Hall, John Daly, and Tangaroa were the safe hitter for Burnside. For the. first time this season a player was sent off. Waratini was expelled for “over-vigorous play” by one of the base umpires, Mr Ed Issac, in the bottom of the third innings. The young United outfielder barged into Michael Hall as that player took' a tag on second base. Saturday was -a. day of .disappointment for the Papanui fans with their team losing both games of a double-header, against United and Home Bakery Lyttelton.

There was consolation.

however, in the big hitting of the outfielder, Steve Vivian who clouted David Bradbury for a home run in the early game and then put a pitch from Lyttelton’s Ross Fife over the outfield fence 65 metres away in the late game. Vivian’s hit against Lyttelton also scored the pitcher, Colin Sutherland, and those two rufis were Papanui’s only credit in the game. Lyttelton out-batted Papanui by five hits to one and two of its runs came from good hits. John Kottier batted in Dennis Wiersma in the bottom of the first and Gary Copsey did the same for Doug Baker in the third. Lyttelton won, 4-2, its other two runs coming from errors.

Earlier, United had got the edge on Papanui straight away with five runs off five safe hits in the first two innings. Leon Fife and Maia Toa both managed home runs in the second innings

and Ray Marsh duplicated their efforts in the fifth. United won,. 6-1, conceding only a run through the bigswinging bat of Vivian. That was comfortably the biggest pounding of the season for Papanui. United headed the hit count by seven to three. Paul McFarlane had the top batting average of .500 for the victor.

Burnside eventually won easily enough, 7-0, against Lyttelton in its only Saturday game, but for a long time the contest hung in the balance.

The Burnside batters were doing no good at all for the first four innings while Lyttelton looked more like scoring, notably when loading up the bases in the bottom of the second. In the third Wiersma was narrowly denied a home run when the slick outfielder, Wayne Poore, caught a towering hit just short of the fence. But in the top of the fifth Burnside finally started hit-

ting the ball. Four safe hits came in the space of five batters and Graeme Anderson, Murray Lanini, Paul Williams, Michael Hall, and John Daly all crossed the home plate. Further runs came in the sixth and seventh.

Bottom section Matches among the bottom four teams saw plenty of runs scored, with Western Suburbs achieving a 12-6 defeat of Wheke over the last two innings and Richmond and Albion putting up 28 runs between them — easily the highest total for many seasons.

Richmond’s fourth win of the season was marked by a stupendous recovery. Albion

piled on nine runs when it went through the batting order in the second innings and by the top of the third the team led, 10-1. Incredibly, Richmond eventually won, 17-11.

There was another good comeback in a late game at Papanui Domain. After the top of the third innings Western Suburbs led, 5-0 (including an lan Johnston homer) only to concede five runs to Wheke in the bottom of the

same innings. Wheke again tied the score, 6-6, in the- fourth innings and it remained the same through the fifth frame. However, Suburbs finally established supremacy, adding six runs in the last two innings with Ross Paniora and Mark Hayston both coming home twice.

POINTS TABLE A Pt P W L F Burnside . 17 16 1 101 7 32 United 17 15 2 94 23 30 Papanui 17 9 8 74 35 18 Lyttelton 17 9 8 78 64 18