Burnside loses final berth to Merivale

Press, 18 March 1985, Page 39

Burnside loses final berth to Merivale

For the first time since Bumside entered senior men’s softball ranks four seasons ago it will be missing from the grand final of the champion-of-champions series when it is contested on March 31. This season the series is a knockout and Burnside was eliminated when it was upset, 2-1, by Merivale at Papanui Domain on Saturday. Thus Burnside played its last game of the season and it might also be the last as coach, for Arnold Hall, who is seriously considering stepping down. By rights Merivale should not have even been in the top four play-offs, but it substituted for United which will be in Whakatane playing in the Webb Shield tournament on March 31. In the final Merivale will meet Richmond, which also triumphed in a 10-innings tiebreak match, beating Suburbs, 7-4, after more than two hours. Burnside took the early lead in the first game when its pitcher, Roger Keith, came home in the top of the third innings. He made base on a walk, advanced to third when Ray Marsh cracked an automatic two-bagger first bounce over the fence, and was scored in by Murray Lanini. The champion'side was unable to add to its score in the rest of the regulation innings and Merivale equalised in the bottom of the fifth when Dean Feldwick batted in Bill Hastie with a drive down the right field line. The match went into extra innings and Burnside had an excellent scoring opportunity in the top of the eighth when the lead-off batter, Graeme Anderson, bunted on to first

with none down. But there he stayed, in spite of the efforts of Jamie Flynn who had been called to perform a sacrifice bunt. Flynn put down the bunt all right, only to be called out for batting out of the box. When the tiebreak was applied in the tenth, with Kottier as the automatic runner sitting on second base, Burnside again had a good chance. Unfortunately for Bumside, Kottier was tagged out at home by the bulky Merivale catcher, Eric Tomlinson. Tomlinson dropped the ball after applying the tag, but an illegal slide was ruled on Kottier. The call was disputed by Mr Hall. Merivale was more successful in getting its automatic runner, Hastie, home in the bottom of the frame. He made third on a passed ball and scampered across the homeplate a little later when Feldwick collected another hit. For Merivale, David Bradbury threw a good game, grabbing 11 strike-outs and conceding seven hits and a walk while pitching to 38 batters. His counterpart, Keith, equalled his best tally of the season with his 13 “Ks” and gave up six hits and a hit pitch. Tomlinson and Feldwick both picked up two hits for Merivale, Anderson, Marsh, and Lanini two each for Burnside. On the previous week-end Burnside’s David Workman could do nothing wrong, blasting four out-of-the-park home runs, three of them in one game. This time he was back to earth, getting struck out three times, though most unhappy with the plate umpire’s call on the last occasion.

The second match was an entertaining contest. Neither side managed a run in regulation innings; in extra innings there was a flood. With the usual Suburbs pitchers away the services of Glen Gordon were required. He has generally been used only in the role of a designated hitter and this was his first actual appearance on the field of play. He did a fine job, restricting the Richmond batters to four hits and a walk in the first seven innings and even picking up three strike-outs, two of them with “sucker” pitches. In the ninth, though, Gordon, could do nothing to stem the runs. Grant Wright, Paul Hughes, Brian Wright, and Grant Gallacher strung together four hits; Richmond loaded the bases and went on to a 3-0 lead. That lead should have been unassailable. Some spectators certainly thought so and headed for home. Suburbs had other ideas and fought back brilliantly to level the scores at 3-3 in the bottom of the frame. Alex Bennett, Bryan Mountford, and Dean Nesbitt all scored on a combination of hits and errors. When the match went into the tiebreak innings Mark McFarlane came in from the outfield to replace Gordon on the mound, but Richmond advanced the score by another four runs, two of them on errors by the Suburbs shortstop, lan Hall, who fumbled a hit from Brian Wright and then threw wide from an ofi balance position. Suburbs again rallied and a huge triple by Alex Bennett which hit the fence brought

home Mark McFarlane in the bottom of the tenth. Their last chance ended on a double play Brian Wright pulling in a hare rap from Bryan Mountford and Bennett caught off the base. Easily the top batter of the game was Richmond’s Grant Gallacher who collected four of his team’s nine hits. Suburbs totalled 12 hits, Mark McFarlane, lan Hall, and Dennis Wiersma all getting two each and Bennett three. One oi Hall’s hits was a double. Although conceding those 12 •hits Richmond’s Peter Babbington had the satisfaction ol being the winning pitcher and advanced his total ol strikeouts to a massive 293 for the season. He will get the chance to bring up his triple century on Sunday week. In the only champion-of-champions match played among the bottom four teams Burnside Rugby beat Merivale Papanui B, 4-2. There were still two catchup games to be played in the post-Christmas competition. Papanui shaded Rugby, 5-0, in one of them, but defaulted to Burnside in the other scheduled to be played yesterday. The competition was unresolved, both Burnside and United ending on 22 points with three losses apiece. Final points: Burnside 22, United 22, Richmond 20, Suburbs 18, Merivale 14, Papanui 10, Burnside Rugby 4, Merivale-Papanui B 2.