United ahead of softball rivals

Press, 11 March 1985, Page 13

United ahead of softball rivals

David Workman, of Chancery Restaurant Bumside, lived up to his surname at Western Park yesterday, when he hit three home runs against AGC United, helping his team to an 11-0 scoreline in six innings. AGC’s power batting had no answer to Workman. It was a duel of batter and pitcher. United’s first pitcher, Charlie Schooner, conceded the first home run to Workman in the first innings and was later “dragged” to be replaced by Leon Fife, the player-coach. Fife crossed himself when Workman walked to the plate in the third innings, anti the batter was struck out. The next time Workman was in the batter’s box, Fife jokingly pitched a resin bag, which hurlers use to get a good grip on the ball. But Workman went on to hit a home run, and in the sixth innings, Workman’s automatic homer scored two runners. On Saturday, Workman also hit a home run at Papanui Domain when Burnside beat Amalgamated Batteries Suburbs, 3-1. In the Saturday games, United went clear of its rivals on the table after squashing Clarity Press Papanui, 5-0 at Papanui Domain. But the Papanui team had problems because its top pitcher, Colin Sutherland, and three other leading players were away. United’s Neil Stuart was in great form for the second consecutive Saturday, adding a further home run to the two he had already collected the previous week-end, and ended up with .1000 batting average. Russley Service StationBumside Rugby enjoyed the victor’s laurels for only the second time since its move to the premier men’s division when it beat Merivale-Papanui B, 5-4, in a last gap win in the final frame at Western Park. Its entry into the division after Christmas was heralded by a win. Richmond, which was equal to United on the points table last Saturday, found it difficult to match the pitching of Dave Bradbury, for Imperial Merivale, and went down 0-2. Paul Williams was the hero of Merivale, hitting an automatic home run over centre-field.

Burnside 11, United 0 Talk of United’s power batting went by the board at Western Park yesterday when Burnside secured 12 hits, including five home runs. Burnside was already 3-0 ahead in the bottom of second innings, which included two automatic homers, when United’s Charlie Schooner was replaced by Leon Fife on the mound. Fife stemmed the tide for one frame only. The Burnside team have a joke about hitting the ball into "Mingo County, and John

Daly did just that in the bottom of the fourth, hitting an automatic homer, supposedly his first since the Pan Am tournament in 1982. Burnside scored a further seven runs in the next two innings, including two David Workman homers, giving three automatic homes for the game and four in the week-end. United was effectively shut out by the pitching of Bumside’s Roger Keith, backed up by excellent fielding, and only one United batter made base. lan Gibson had the honour of securing the only safe hit in the top of the fifth, but he had to languish on first. For Bumside, Keith pitched eight strike-outs for one hit in six innings. Schooner’s figures were four hits and one “K” in two innings, and United’s other pitcher, Fife, took three strikeouts for nine hits and a walk. Rugby 5, Merivale-Papanui B 4 Merivale looked as though it had the game sewn up, galloping away to a 4-0 lead in the first four innings. In the top of the first, Merivale’s second batter, Brett Williams, hit a three-bagger and was scored by a single from Cliff Metcalf. In the second innings, Merivale loaded the bases with two down, but failed to capitalise. Rugby had its chances in the opening frames, Malcolm Neulze made it to third base in the first and third innings, in the latter case on a three-base hit, and Kevin Spratt hit a two-bag line drive in the bottom of the second. But Merivale was in command in the top of the fourth when the designated hitter, Paul Good, singled on safely, and Brian Harbott (.666) punched a hit into the outfield which was errored scoring the base runner and allowing Harbott to third. A bunt by Hamish Clark was held for too long by the third baseman, Percy Reihana, and Harbott scored when the ball was thrown to first to make the out. Clark in turn was batted in by a twobase hit by Metcalfe. Rugby looked out of the game when it came into bat in the bottom of the frame, but Grant Cathcart hit a threebagger and was immediately scored on a passed ball on a strike-out. Neutze got to first on the strike-out and was advanced by an error of a Tim Reihana hit. Neutze and Reihana were then hit in by Brian Cathcart and Cathcart in turn was scored by a Percy Reihana two-bagger. Rugby showed the advantage of having two pitchers in the side, when Tom Reihana was replaced on the mound by his brother, Percy. Merivale’s best chance came in the top of the final innings when Craig Coulter made it to third with none down, but the remaining batters failed to connect. But Rugby made sure the game did not go into extra innings when Tom Reihana got to first on a fielder’s choice and was hit home by Brian Cathcart. Pitching for Merivale, Murray Britt took eight strike-outs for seven hits and a walk. On Rugby’s side, Tom Reihana pitched five "K’s” for seven hits and two walks, in four innings and his brother, Percy, hurled five strike-outs, conced-

ing one hit and a walk in three frames. Merivale 2, Richmond 0 Richmond made all the early runnings at Western Park, Craig Seaward, the leadoff batter, getting to second base in the top of the first, and Eddie Kingen making it to third in the third frame. For Merivale it was a case of three-up, three-down, until the buttom of the fourth, when top-of-the-order batter, Paul Williams, hit an automatic home run over the centre-field fence. In the bottom of the fifth innings, Grant McCarroll hit a two-bagger, and was scored when an attempted doubleplay ended in disaster for Richmond because of an overthrow. Richmond was unable to make any headway against the pitching of Merivale’s David Bradbury, to peg back the slender lead. For Merivale, Bradbury took six strike-outs for one hit and a walk in seven innings. In reply, Richmond’s Peter Babbington hurled seven “K’s” for two hits in six innings. United 5, Papanui 0 United had little trouble giving Papanui the run around, batters making base in every innings. The scoring opened the innings when Neil Stuart was walked and advanced to second by a safe bunt by Greg Bayley. Stuart was batted in by a single from Russell Morrison, and United’s pitcher, Charlie Schooner, completed the scoring by batting in Bayley. In the third innings, the score became 3-0 when Paul McFarlane hit a two-bagger, advanced to third on a sacrifice hit by Bayley and came home on a passed ball. In the same frame, Papanui was shut out of the game. Luke Jansen was walked in the bottom of the second, but was tagged going to second off a hit by Darrell Chick. The same thing happened in the third innings when Michael Bishop singled on safely, but was taken out going to second off a Garry Bishop hit. Neil Stuart hit an automatic home run in the top of the fifth, and scored again in the seventh after singling on safely. At the same time, Schooner appeared to strike form on the mound for United, allowing Papanui’s batters little leeway. Dale Eager got to second in the bottom of the sixth, and Buzz Terry to the same base in the seventh, but the remaining Papanui batters could not score the runners. Schooner pitched eight strike-outs for three hits and a walk for United, and Papanui’s Terry took four "K’s” for eight hits and five walks. Burnside 3, Suburbs 1 David Workman, the designated hitter, took an automatic home run in the bottom of the first innings, and Burnside went further ahead in the second innings by taking two more runs in a frame which included loaded bases from two walks and an error. But Alex Bennett replied for Suburbs by scoring an automatic homer in the top of the fourth. Roger Keith was in fine form on the mound for Burnside taking 12 “K’s.”

W L D F A Pt United 14 11 3 75 29 22 Burnside 13 10 3 69 12 20 Richmond 14 10 4 38 21 20 Suburbs 14 9 5 58 32 18 Merivale 14 7 6 45 43 14 Papanui 12 4 8 29 36 8 Rugby 13 2 11 22 79 4 Merivale B 14 1 13 21 105 2