Softball Sweet revenge for United men

Press, 1 November 1982, Page 36

Softball Sweet revenge for United men

United showed that it wai far from-a spent force bj crushing Papanui, its con queror of three weeks ago, 81, in the Dalgety Travel senior men’s softball competition on Saturday. When the teams last met Papanui was a deserved winner, 5-2. and the prospects for revenge did not look promising after the “warm-up" match in the double header at Papanui Domain. United was unimpressive in a 4-0 defeat of the bottom-placed team, Richmond. However, the United supporters, down in the dumps rather after the first game, were well and truly cheered up when their , team went on the .rampage against Papanui. The s econd innings, when United batted through its order, realised five hits and five runs. The big win has kept United in with a chance of achieving its ambition to represent Canterbury in the Pan Am club nations next March. United is scheduled to meet Noel Leeming Burnside in a crunch game on Sunday. Bumside, still unbeaten, racked up two more effortless wins without conceding a run at Spreydon Domain. Robert (“Chub") Tangaroa, pitching to John Daly, is well on the way to his first century of “Ks” for the season with 68 in six games. He extended the number of successive scoreless innings he has pitched to 32 and chalked up his fifth shut-out game in a row. One of Burnside’s new recruits, Roy Ah Kuoi, formerly with Richmond, came to light in dramatic fashion with two successive ■ home runs against Albion.

United 4, Richmond 0 The match itself was some>t thing of a damp squib, but that e could hardly be said for the e action outside the diamond, jj Some children, anticipating Guy . Fawkes Day by a week, let off f firecrackers at'regular intervals 1 distracting some spectators and ’» intensely annoying others. United’s coach. Leon Fife. »- sprung a surprise at the start by S playing himself — and pitching — presumably to rest his J brother. Ross, for the big game. _ Rusty or not, Fife performed well in the five innings he 1_ allowed himself, taking five e strike-outs and giving away only d one safe hit ana three walks. ■, The early United batting effort e was pitiful with not one player venturing as far as first base in I the first three innings. Richmond r actually looked like scoring first 1 when Garry McKernan clouted the ball to the right-field fence e for a three-bagger in the bottom t of the second. But Leon Fife i "fanned" his opposite number, - Brian Wright, to end the chance. But Paul McFarlane finally started the ball rolling for United with a two-bagger, subsequently converted into a run. ‘ in the top of the fourth and the a team's batting started to “click” an innings later when there were , three safe hits. Mark McFarI lane's two-bagger scored in two t baserunners and there was a further run in the sixth after a ' Paul Shannon hit. ■ Altogether. United managed 1 only six hits off the Richmond 5 pitcher. Brian Wright, but they 1 did come from six different t batters. Shannon, the only player to bat 1000. also distinguished himself by escaping a "hot box” between first and second bases. ’ ■Of the Richmond batters only • McKernan looked capable of ! doing anything remarkable. As ! well as his three-bagger he managed another big hit that went close to clearing the fence, but Tony Mountford, with his back to the diamond, safely took the catch to end the game. Richmond has a particularly youthful infield this season and the players put in a tidy performance. United 8, Papanui 1 This was a stunning reversal of form by United which looked like the team of old. The batters plundered 12 safe hits off the pitching of Colin Sutherland and several of those hits were big ones. Leading the battling with a mighty effort was the third baseman, Maia Toa, who cracked two

single-base hits and one twobagger for the ultimate 1000 average. He also took a stunning reflex catch from a fiercely hit drive by Dale Eagar in the sixth.

Paul Shannon. Ray Marsh, and Dean Couch all collected two hits each. Both Couch and Neil Stuart (formerly Western Suburbs) had three-baggers to their credit. Stuart's going over the head of an advancing right-fielder and Couch's being punched down the first baseline.

It was Papanui. though, who looked dangerous early. At one stage in the top of the first innings the team had the Bishop brothers, Tony and Garry, on first and second base with none down.

That chance went begging, but in the next innings Steve Vivian gave Papanui the 1-0 lead as he dived across home plate in a cloud of dust after a passed ball. Vivian should not even have been on base, but the normally supersafe hands of Ray Marsh let him down when the ball was skied into the outfield. Then the United batters went beserk in the bottom of the second innings and after that five-run massacre it was all over for Papanui. Two more runs followed in the third and one more in the fifth.

If Papanui's defence was not up to the usual standard, the batting still had its moments, although one of the usual big batters, Rennie Tai, had the misfortune to be struck-out three times. Five safe hits were produced, two from the bat of Dick Dolan, but eight runners were left to die on the bases.

The Papanui first baseman-turned-shortstop Garry Bishop missed out on the hits but he took a superb catch to put out Paul Shannon in the fourth. That effort,- though, was to be topped by Toa.

Ross Fife did the pitching this time for United, with brother, Leon, back in the coach’s box. and he chalked up seven strikeouts against Sutherland's four.

Burnside 11, Western Suburbs 0 Western Suburbs never tested Noel Leeming Bumside in the early game at Spreydon Domain, the match only going to five innings. Enc Tomlinson, the Suburbs catcher, got the team’s solitary safe hit, and made it to second base on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second innings, and in what might be seen as a bit of nepotism, Mac Tangaroa was given a walk by his brother and Burnside pitcher, Robert Tangaroa. in the fifth innings. Burnside was busy with the bat from the start, taking three runs in the top of the first innings, five in the third innings, two in the fourth, and one in the fifth and final turn at bat. In all the team took 10 safe hits and three walks for one strike out from. the Suburbs pitcher, Mac Tangaroa.

John Kottier was Burnside’s star batter, htting 1000 with < three two-baggers in his three I turns in the box. Wayne Poore, I Graeme Anderson, and Murray s Lanini (one three-bagger), batted i .666 in three turns. i Burnside 10, Albion 0 ' Burnside’s pitcher, Robert 1 Tangaroa. was only warming up t when he took six strike-outs in t the teain's early game against ( Western Suburbs, because in the i later game against Albion he I fanned 13 of the 16 batters faced, including 10 in a row, in five 1 innings. j

Albion's designated, hitter, Glen Gordon, put bat to ball in the top of the first innings, but a brilliant reflex trap by Burnside's first baseman, Graeme Anderson, put an end to that move, and the next 10 batters were struck out. Patrick Adamson got Albion's only safe hit in the fifth innings, when he took a two-bagger, and was advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from Grant Nieuwenhuyzen, but the play was stopped when the next batter was 'K'd. Roy Ah Kuoi was the in-form batter for Bumside hitting two home runs, and in the top of the

first innings. Alan Hall was unlucky not to get a homer as well, but John Daly, the runner on base could not sprint hard because of a pinched nerve in his back, and Hall had to hold up on third. Dean Feldwick batted .1000 in his two turns at bat.

Burnside took nine safe hits and one walk (a hit pitch) from Albion's pitchers — Peter Cook offering up 10 hits and a walk for three strike-outs in four innings, and Wally Mohi giving up one safe hit in the final innings.

POINTS TABLE P W L F A Pt Burnside 6 6 0 52 1 12 United 6 5 1 41 11 10 Papanui 6 4 2 39 17 8 W.Suburbs 6 2 4 26 42 4 Albion 6 1 5 13 64 2 Richmond 6 0 6 6 42 0