Much expected of young pair at softball tourney

Press, 26 December 1984, Page 18

Much expected of young pair at softball tourney

TIM DUNBAR

Even though Paul Shannon and David Workman are two of the youngest members of the Canterbury men’s softball team, much will be expected of them in the Rothmans national inter-provincial championships which begin at Porirua Park on Friday. The representative coach, Dale Eagar, will be hoping that Workman, aged 19, -reveals his ability to hit the ball out of the park and Shannon, aged 20, will be expected to get on base, by whatever means he can, during the six-day tournament. The two youthful infielders are among just four survivors from the Canterbury team which finished fourth at Hastings last season, though a number of others have been to national tournaments in the past. Also back from last year’s side are Murray Lanini and Grant Wright. In recent seasons the champion Burnside side has made up the bulk of the Canterbury squad; this season there have been a large number of defections and its only representatives are Lanini and Workman.

Among those unavailable were Burnside’s two world series gold medallists, Jimmy Hall and Ray Marsh, who both have an inclination to go for the fence, the astute catcher, John Daly, and the very experienced first baseman, Graeme Anderson. This will also be Canterbury’s first national tourna-

ment in five years without “Chubb.” The mustachioed Chubb Tangaroa is now pitching for Auckland and the Canterbury batters will have to face his formidable deliveries instead of benefiting from them. To replace Tangaroa, Canterbury has introduced a pitching trio of Mike Ash, a Canadian, Peter Babbington, a former West Coaster, and Colin Sutherland, who last played for the province three seasons ago.

All are good pitchers, capable of top performances, but without Tangaroa’s ability to rip through the best provincial batting line-ups. The Canterbury short-stop and captain, Paul McFarlane, another player returning to representative softball after three seasons, is not thinking in terms of 1-0 ball games. “We will need to score three or four runs to win. There will be too much pressure on our pitchers.”

That is where players such as Workman and Shannon fit into the scheme of things. McFarlane said that Canterbury, without Hall and Marsh, generally lacked the players capable of hitting the ball out of the park. “There’s got to be a Stringer (lan, the New Zealand power batter) to win a game.” Workman, though, has

blasted four automatic home runs during the interclub season, as well as one three-bagger and six twobaggers, and lan Gibson, Paul Williams and Eric Tomlinson have also shown the ability to hit the long ball.

“Dave’s a good softballer and a good utility pitcher,” said McFarlane of Workman, who will play third base at Porirua. “I’m looking to him to hit a lot of runs in. He’s the main man.” Shannon is rather in the mould of another lefthanded batter, Jeff Strom, who so often led off the order for New Zealand during the world series in the United States. He, too, has a penchant for- getting on base.

“I think Paul has got a great future,” said McFarlane, who plays with the young first baseman in the United senior A team. “He loves batting.” McFarlane said that Shannon’s club batting average this season would be close to .500 and his on-base average around .600. “He’s so quick,” marvelled McFarlane. “He can drop a bunt, slap a threebagger, and gets a lot of walks and errors.”

At present, said McFarlane, Shannon was “riding the crest of a wave.”

Two years ago, at his first national tournament, Shannon topped the Canterbury

batting averages and made the South Island team at first base. He will want to forget his disastrous tournament last season when he had one solitary hit in 25 turns at bat. ; ‘ With Shannon on first, Lanini on second, McFarlane (a former New Zealand representative) at shortstop, and Workman on third, Canterbury will have an excellent infield although the representative captain said it was a shame Hall would not be there. “It would have been a wee bit tighter with Jimmy at short-stop and me at second base.” Canterbury, he said, would have to rely on its batting at Porirua and he thinks the coach, Mr Eager, will have to put the top nine batters on the diamond each game, rather than the top nine as such. McFarlane is very happy

with the tournament draw. Canterbury, which will meet North Shore and Hutt Valley on the first day, was certainly capable of finishing in the top four again, along with the “big three” of Auckland, Wellington and Hutt. “Hutt Valley has always been very shaky during the first three or four days and jt’s good to strike them on the first day,” he said. Canterbury has already surprised a number of teams by retaining the Jefferies Cup, symbol of South Island supremacy, and McFarlane believes one of the best things going for it will be “an excellent team spirit.” McFarlane, the veteran of about nine previous national tournaments, said that the team spirit was the best since he had been playing for Canterbury. “We all get on well together. That was evident even on the first one-day trip to Timaru.” As well as having the services of Mr Eager — in McFarlane’s words a “good, keen, aggressive coach who knows what it’s all about” — the Canterbury team will have Burnside’s Trevor Grant as manager and, from the second day, the popular Brian (“Tubby”) Waine as assistant coach. Canterbury’s draw in the section play is: December 28: v. North Shore and Hutt Valley. December 29: v. Waikato and Auckland. December 30: v. Hawke’s Bay and Southland. December 31: v. Wellington.