Convincing 13-3 win for Albion

Press, 8 March 1982, Page 22

Convincing 13-3 win for Albion

Albion scored a convincing 13-3 win over General Lee Albion in the first elimination round of the senior women’s softball competition' in Christchurch on Saturday. The win puts Albion directly into the finals of the Champion of Champions event in a fortnight.

The match was in contrast to last week’s marathon encounter, with Albion dominating in all phases.

The other two matches of the day produced some tight and big-hitting softball.

Monowai sneaked a 1-0 win against Papanui and A.G.C. United reversed the outcome of last week’s game when it beat Western Suburbs, 6-5. ALBION 13, GENERAL LEE BURNSIDE 3 The game did not live up to pre-match predictions because Albion took command by racing to a 4-0 lead in the first innings.

A pitching change by Bumside in the second innings still failed to contain the Albion batters. Both Janenne Gould and Lynda O’Caih scored, O’Cain’s. run coming from a right-field homer. : :

The third innings saw Vicky Paskell, Jan Vernal and Gould score a further three runs.

Penny Salton scored in the fourth and Vernal and Gould again crossed home plate in the fifth.

The sixth innings produced another pitching change for Burnside and saw the speedster, Robyn Storer, tie up the Albion batters to prevent any runs coming in for the innings. The change was too late for Bumside as the damage had. been done. There was no chance of it getting back into the game. In the seventh innings young Gould scored her

fourth run of the game to make up Albion’s tally of 13 runs. Bumside’s first run came in the third innings after a series of blunders by Albion. Sue Williams made base on a walk and made the remaining bases on errors. The final two Burnside runs came in the fourth innings when Jane Earnshaw and Sharron Mansfield scored off a tremendous right-field three-bagger by Christine Paterson; A.G.C. UNITED 6, WESTERN SUBURBS 5 United’s Liz Siatago opened the scoring in the first innings and picked up her second run of the game in the team’s third turn at bat by smacking a centre field home run. Siatago was followed home by Barbara Fletcher, leaving Suburbs down 3-0 and desperate for runs. Sharron Sunderland scored

Suburbs’ first run in the fourth innings and Sue McCullough scored in the fifth off a tremendous home run, making the score 3-2. The match came alive in the sixth innings as Suburbs took the lead. ’ United’s Fletcher scored her second run of the game but Suburbs applied the pres-sure-by getting three runners across home plate. Woods was the first to score after making base on an error and was followed home by Ferron and Johnson, both making base on walks. In bat for the last time and down 5-4, United reSiired at least one run to tie e game and force extra innings. The lead-off, Gail Mountford, made base on a safe left-field hit and came home on a fielder’s choice. Suburbs 1 were unable to sustain the pressure and fielding errors cost a further run to Char-

manne Lee, giving United the game. MONOWAI 1, PAPANUI 0 In a tight struggle both teams turned on probably their best performances for some weeks and produced some high quality softball, in the field and with the bat.

The only run of the game came in Monowai’s fifth turn at bat. The pitcher, Grace Tuavera, hit safely to centre field and was brought home by a big hit from Maria Hoetjes. Hoetjes tried desparately to make the score 2-0 but was tagged out at home plate. Papanui had a tremendous opportunity to tie the game? up in the sixth innings when Chris John made base on a safe hit. Jim Dreaver advanced John to second, John then raced down to third. The play was made on John from left field and after making base, she lifted her foot momentarily only to be tagged out, leaving Papanui scoreless.