Taita College beats Rongotai to win schools’ softball

Press, 29 March 1982, Page 18

Taita College beats Rongotai to win schools’ softball

Taita College (Hutt Valley) came from behind to beat an unlucky Rongotai College (Wellington) 4-3, in an exciting boys’ grand final when the Dalgety Travel national secondary schools’ softball championship ended at Papanui Domain on Saturday.

The girls’ final was more clear-cut and the favourite, Waiopehu College (Levin), shaded the title-holder, Nayland College (Nelson), 6-2. Rongotai lost the boys’ match in spite of a much improved performance—it had lost 12-2, to the same

team the day before— outbatting Taita by nine hits to four. Some bad fielding errors helped Taita to win after it had trailed, 1-3, going into the bottom of the fifth innings. Both Darryl Kerr and Paul

McClelland made base on infield errors in the fifth. Kerr came home on a wild pitch by Rongotai’s Glenn, Davis which went through a hole in the fence, and the scores were tied when the captain, Darryl Marino, hit home McClelland. More disaster for Rongotai was to follow in the bottom of the seventh, when extra innings had looked almost certain. A poor throw by the Rongotai pitcher, Davis, to first base rebounded off the foot of a fielder and the ball, which remained "live,” went virtually all the way to the fence. In the meantime, the batter, Kerr, got all the way round to third and he crossed the plate a minute or so later after a wayward throw home from first by Geoff Askew. Play had gone better for Rongotai in the earlier innings and three hits were strung together when Davis and Askew scored in the top of the third. Davis continued his good batting form by batting in the big-hitting Andrew Levarko in the fifth after Taita had grabbed back a run through McClelland. Davis and Levarko, who almost cleared the fence for an automatic home run with one hit, both batted .500, but were overshadowed by the outfielder, Mike Stace, who clouted three hits in as many turns at bat. For Taita, Marino (.666), was the only batter to secure two safe hits. He had a good tournament, taking home the trophy and a travel bag as a member of the winning team and a new bat from the Canterbury Sports Depot as the top batter, with an average of .700. Gavin Aiken (Rongotai), won the Hallensteins’ award for the most runs batted in four, and Taita’s Adrian Bentley; who tied up Rongo-

tai in the crucial last two iiffiings, won the Anderson and Hill pitching prize with an earned run average of .000. Third place went to Burnside High School, which pulled off the act for which its namesake, Noel Leeming Bumside, became known at the recent Pan Am national club championships. Bumside trailed Mount Albert Grammar, 0-5, after the first innings, changed its infield, and went on to win dramatically, 6-5. Mount Albert had beaten the same team, 7-0, the day before. The girls’ final was notable for the form of Waiopehu’s lead-off batter and short-stop, Gaye Rose, and the third base, Fiona Wilson. Rose featured in two well-executed double plays and scored two of the runs, while Wilson produced some real power batting with four hits from four excursions to the batter’s box. Rose opened the scoring for Waiopehu in the bottom of the third innings when Wi Ison slammed, a hit over leftfield into fhe fence. Four more runs followed from three hits in the fourth and Gaylene Bullmore scored the final run in the sixth to clinch the Lyndsey Leask Trophy. Nayland’s main chances of a comeback went begging when, in the top of the fifth, with runners on first and third bases, Dixie Doleks was caught on an infield fly by Rose, one of a gathering of four anxious fielders. However, the team did grab back two runs through Susanne Edwards and Trudi Thomson in the sixth. Results:— Girls.—Play-off for third and fourth: Hillary College, 8, Naenae College, 3. Final: Waiopehu College, 6, Nayland College, 2. Boys—Play-off for third and fourth: Burnside High School, 6, Mount Albert Grammar, 5. Final: Taita College, 4, Rongotai College, 3.