Papanui maintains unbeaten record

Press, 3 February 1987, Page 4

Papanui maintains unbeaten record

Papanui maintained its unbeaten record in the postChristmas premier men’s softball competition with a narrow 1-0 victory over Cardinals at Papanui Domain last evening. The only run came in the bottom of the first innings through Garry Bishop. He made base on a hit to left field, advanced to second on a passed ball, stole third and was then hit home by Rennie Tai.

Smart work by the Papanui pitcher, Colin Sutherland; had put paid to a Cardinals scoring chance in the top of the same innings. Sutherland picked up a ground ball hit by Jamie Flynn and his throw caught Mike Thomas off third base. Thomas had collected a two-base hit and then advanced to third on a hit by Davey Hawker. After the first frame the match was a very tight affair with neither side able to score. Papanui ended with six hits and seven men left on base against the five hits and five left on base of Cardinals. Sutherland took nine strHteouts and his Cardinals counterpart, Carl Tuinenga, took six.

On an open diamond at Aranui, Richmond picked up its first points of the competition with a 3-2 scoreline against Merivale. The match required two tiebreak innings. The scores were tied up at 1-1 after the seven regulation innings, Richmond scoring through Grant Wright in the top of the third and Merivale matching that with a Brian Harbott home run in the fourth.

Neither team managed to score in the first tiebreak innings, but both Grant Wright and Mike Timu came home for Richmond in the top of the ninth, on a sacrifice hit by Paul Hughes and a hit by Brian Wright respectively. In reply, Merivale could manage only one run, Mike Lake, scoring on a sacrifice hit by Harbott. Richmond's grabbed 11 strike-outs and Murray for Merivale. - Richmond shaded Merivale br%brto two in the hit count.

Points: Burnside 8, Papanui 8, S®iirbs 6, Merivale >s. Cardf|iMs 2, Richmond 2.