Softball Jeffries Cup to Southland

Press, 2 December 1985, Page 33

Softball Jeffries Cup to Southland

Ashburton reporter Southland made no race of the Jeffries Cup softball tournament in Ashburton yesterday when it beat South Canterbury, 5;0, in the final. Both teams had to go to tie-breakers to get into the final. Southland won, 2-1, over Otago and South Canterbury upset the tournament favourite, Canterbury, 1-0, both games going to nine innings. Southland got its winning run from Jamie Campbell, who hit home Peter Marshall. Con Ormsby scored for South Canterbury to put Canterburuy out of the hunt, and any hope it had of fighting back ended with a superb diving catch from Barry Fairbrother, a very good second baseman for South Canterbury. He had earlier featured strongly when South Canterbury beat Nelson to quality for the semi-finals. He got to base on a fielding error and advanced home with two wild pitches and a passed ball, surprising stuff at this level. In the final it was all Southland.

South Canterbury, which fielded safely throughout the tournament, failed to cope with the big occasion.

Results were: Section one: Canterbury 15, Central Otago 0; Eastern Southland 2, lifid-Canterbury 1; Canterbury 10, Mid-Canterbury 0; Eastern Southland 7, Marlborough 4; Canterbury 12, Eastern Southland 0; Otago 9, Central Otago’ 0; Otago 2, Marlborough 1; Marlborough 5, Mid-Canterbury 3; Mid-Canter-bury 6, Central Otago 5; Canterbury 2, Otago 1; Otago 8, Eastern Southland 0; Marlborough 7, Central Otago 4; Otago 3, Mid-Canterbury 2; Canterbury 2, Marlborough 0; Eastern Southland 10, Central Otago 5. Section two: Nelson 1, West Coast 0; South Canterbury 5, North Otago 0; Southland 5, South Canterbury 0; Southland 9, North Otago 0; South Canterbury 6, West Coast 1; Southland 10, Nelson 1; North Otago 6, West Coast 5; Southland 4, West Coast 1; South Canterbury 1, Nelson 0. Final points: Southland 8, South Canterbury 6, Nelson 4, West Coast 2, North Otago 0. Section one: Canterbury 10, Otago 8, Eastern Southland 6, Marlborough 4, Mid-Canterbury 2, Central Otago 0. Semi-finals: Southland 1, Otago 0 in nine innings; South Canterbury 1, Canterbury 0 in nine. Final: Southland 5, South Canterbury 0. Tournament awards, most outfield catches: B. Wells (North OtagoO; Most infield outs: Sam Knudsen (Mid-Can-terbury); Best batter Grant Thompson (Southland) with a .545 average.