Albion wins softball cup

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 30

Albion wins softball cup

The Robert Brown Albion women’s softball team retained the Garry’s Bakery Challenge Cup at the annual Old Boys tournament at Timaru on Sunday by beating Bumside, 1-0, in a closely fought final. The win was sweet revenge for the side after its 3-4 losts to Burnside on Saturday. However, the match could have gone either way. While batters from both sides moved the ball they found the fields near impenetrable. Only four hits were given up in the match, Bumside collecting three of them. The match was deadlocked until the seventh innings and the closest any runner got to scoring was from second base. At the top of the seventh, Burnside in-form, Anita Perreau drove to right-field but was taken out in an attempt to make second and so thwarted any opportunity for her side to score. The bottom of the frame produced the winning run for Albion. The head-off, Cheryl Kemp, made base on an error. Sharron Constable was put in as a pinch-niriher and

she was sacrificed to both second and third. With two down, Chris Tew hit an immaculate left-field line drive to score Constable. Demons (Invercargill) also retained the men’s title, comfortably beating Tait United, 4-0, in a one-sided rain interrupted match. United was given no opportunity of getting into the match as a result of some high-class fielding by the Demon’s. Demon’s put the pressure on at the top of the second to secure a commanding 3-0 lead. The big-hitting Russell Frisby picked up a centrefield hit, while Tony Goodall was walked. Ed Potter then came into the box and smacked a left-field triple which scored both Frisby and

Goodall. A passed ball allowed Potter to cross the plate. At the top of the third the coach, Leon Fife, came onto the mound for United and kept, the Demon’s tied up for the remainder of the match. However, in the early part of the third, Fife took a while to settle into his task and Darren Roberts was walked. A pass-ball saw Roberts comfortably on second, while another Frisby hit advanced him to third and an infield error had Roberts at the plate. There was no way the Demon’s were going to relinquish their lead or allow United to threaten the scoreline. No matter what United did with the bat, the Demons had the control to shut out.