Burnside takes toll of depleted pitching

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 20

Burnside takes toll of depleted pitching

A.G.C. United's depleted pitching strength helped Noel Leeming Burnside to a 13-1 scoreline and its biggest winning margin of the season in the Dalgety Travel premier men's softball at Western Ball Park on Saturday. The regular ’United firststring pitcher, Philip Beecroft, was still away and the most obvious alternative. Leon Fife, elected to stay in the coach’s box. Instead. Mr Fife used two very occasional pitchers on the mound. Paul Shannon, a first baseman. and Paul McFarlane, a short-stop. Burnside was never under any pressure from either of them, though McFarlane did rather better than his predecessor, who walked the first three batters he faced, and. in the top of the second, conceded a "grand slam" when Burnside's David Workman slammed a pitch over the left outfield fence with the bases loaded. It was Workman s fifth automatic homer of the season. When McFarlane replaced Shannon in the top of the third, with Burnside up 7-1, Shannon reverted to his old first bag spot, but another reshuffling of the infield was required. But lan Gibson, more usually the second base or in the outfield, stayed behind the catcher’s mask. It seemed to be a day for players to assume new roles. Burnside’s New Zealand pitching representative, Chubb Tangaroa, not the most agile fellow in his team, though he has surprised more than once in the past, even had a short spell at short-stop. Tangaroa elicited a great response from his team-mates and the spectators when he took the final out with a quick pick-up and lightning throw to first base. “That was about the brightest part of the game,” remarked the Burnside coach, Mr Arnold Hall. Tangaroa, who also shone with the bat, collecting two

safe hits, claimed that the out he took from short-stop was no fluke. "I can play anywhere." he said. Burnside outbatted United by nine hits to three. Workman being the top batter with an average of .600. He also batted in six runs. The only United run came in the bottom of the first innings when the United captain. Tony Mountford, got on to one of Tangaroa's less lethal pitches and slammed a double to the outfield. bringing home McFarlane, who had made base on a forced infield error. At Papanui Domain, the other premier men’s contest was rather more closely contested and Wilson Neill Richmond had to come from behind in what was to be its last turn at bat to shade Imperial Merivale. 7-5, for its second win of the competition. The Richmond side scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth innings to go from 3-5 down to 7-5 up. One of the runs came through the luxury of a walk home from third base after the Richmond coach, Greg Panagiotidis, successfuly appealed for an illegal pitch on Merivale’s David Bradbury. There was also some debate over whether the earlier Richmond scorers in the innings had all actually touched third base on the way round the diamond. The match brought plenty of action and Richmond only just shaded Merivale in the hit count with 10 to nine.

The two senior A competition or bottom four matches were contrasting affairs. At Western Park, United B beat Woolston, 10-0, in just five innings while at Papanui Domain the home team, Clar-

ity Press Papanui, managed a bare 1-0 victory over Western Suburbs. In Papanui’s three pre-Christmas games with Suburbs the two teams averaged 12 runs a game between them. Papanui put up a rather lack-lustre display for much of its game against" Suburbs, but sparked into life in the top of the fifth when two lower-order batters, Ken Deal and Luke Jansen, strung together safe hits. Deal made it home soon after on a passed ball for the only run of the game. Deal, a very sound second base, came up to bat three times and secured three hits for the perfect 1000 batting average. Remarkably, his batting has previously been so little regarded that a designated hitter has usually taken his place in the order. Papanui’s pitcher. Colin Sutherland, who had already reached his century of “K's" for the season in the Tuesdaynight game, added another 12 strikeouts to his tally on Saturday. Only Paul Gardner, who also got an amazing amount of work at third base, managed a safe hit off Sutherland and there were no walks conceded by the Papanui man. Suburbs, in fact, only had two men on base in the’ match. United B had its first win of the new competition, dominating Woolston from the start with two runs in the first innings. It added five more in a most profitable second innings and three in the fifth to apply the coup de grace. The team outbatted Woolston by nine hits to one with the best effort from Brent Skinner, with two out of three including one two-bagger.

POINTS TABLE A Pt P w L F Burnside 2 2 0 22 1 4 Richmond 3 2 1 11 16 4 United 3 1 2 8 21 2 Merivale 2 0 2 9 12 0

POINTS TABLE A Pt P w L F Papanui 2 2 0 4 0 4 W. Subs 3 2 1 15 6 4 United B 3 1 2 12 9 2 Woolston 2 0 2 3 19 0