Top pair maintain dominance

Press, 25 January 1988, Page 29

Top pair maintain dominance

Albion and Burnside maintained their dominance by again comfortably winning their games in the premier women’s softball at Hagley Park on Saturday. In the early game, Albion downed Monowai, 9-3, but it was only third and sixthinnings rallies that gave the Canterbury national interclub representative victory.

Burnside, however, asserted its dominance in its first two turns at bat to take a 4-0 lead against Papanui. For the remainder of the game Papanui managed to keep the Burnside batters at bay and the score remained unchanged. Next week-end the rivals, Albion and Burnside, will battle it out again. Burnside will be out to avenge its two losses, against Albion before Christmas. Albion will be wanting to demonstrate that it is rightfully Canterbury’s representative for the national inter-club tournament in March. Points table

In a surprise move Papanui began the match with its young pitcher, Rachael Tibble, aged 16. Tibble, who had returned on Friday from the national under-16 tourna-

ment, was not able to contain the Burnside batters. At the bottom of the first inning Burnside’s lead-off, Chris John, made base on a hit through short-stop to left field, eventually scoring off an infield error. With two down, Donna Ward hit to left field for a single, then the talented Anita Perreau smacked a right-field triple to bring in Ward. Burnside swung into action with the bat again in the second. Mandy Karatau made base on a fielder’s choice and came home, also on a fielder’s choice, while Ralene Forde hit safely to centre field and crossed the plate on an error.

At the bottom of the third Leonie Bloxham came on to the mound and contained Burnside’s batters for the remainder of the match, conceding only three hits to the 13 batters she faced.

Papanui struggled with the bat throughout the match. A glimmer of hope came for the side at the top of the fourth, but some superb fielding from Burnside thwarted any hope of narrowing the scoreline.

Having gone three-up, three-down in its first three turns at bat, Papanui was back to the top of its order going into the fourth. The head-off, Ra Hapi, powered a ball to Chris Kellam at second, who stopped

the ball magnificently. The power of the hit knocked Kellam’s glove off, leaving Kellam crawling on the ground for the ball. However, Kellam, always safe at second, recovered to take the out.

Bloxham laid down a safe bunt and advanced to second on a Debbie Chase hit to centre field. With runners on first and second and only one down, Burnside’s field remained cool, picking off the lead runner, Bloxham, for the second out, with the third coming from a great catch by Perreau off the bat of Karen Mills.

In the top of the fifth Papanui had an opportunity to get its lead-off batter on base when a dropped third strike went into the back of the net. However, poor running by the batter had her out easily at first. Albion 9, Monowai 3

Donna Meuli returned to the mound for Albion and so relieved to some extent the pressure on the player-coach, Cheryl Kemp. Meuli, who pitched last season for Albion, left to play in Australia. After a stint with the Manly Club, she returned just after Christmas and will give Albion a much-needed safety margin in the pitching department. Although Meuli conceded nine hits to the 32 batters faced she looked in control

throughout and notched up a creditable six strike-outs.

It took Albion until the top of the third to get into stride with the bat and it was a combination of solid hits and fielding errors that allowed the side to go through its order to bring in five runs. Both Lynda O’Cain and Wendy Hughes scored off a left field double by the designated hitter, Trina Whittaker. Whittaker in turn crossed the plate when Penny Salton, returning after an injury that has kept her out of softball for over two months, forced an infield error. Sharron Constable drove to centre field to bring in Salton, while another player returning to the fold after a long lay-off, Chris Tew, brought in Salton. Further scoring opportunities went begging for Albion in its fourth and fifth turns at bat. However, the floodgates opened again in the sixth with the side’s final four runs scoring.

The lead-off batter, Lou Shearing, hit safely to centre field and was sacrificed to second by O’Cain. Hughes picked up her second hit of the game to score Shearing, while a wild pitch and passed ball enabled Hughes to cross the plate. Whittaker also picked up her second hit and was advanced to second on a Salton drive to left field. Both Whit-

taker and Salton scored off a Constable hit to centre field, the hit being Constable’s third of the match. Monowai’s first run came at the bottom of the fifth in rather fortuitous fashion. Its lead-off, Tanya Hollander, made base on a good centre right-field drive. In what was meant to be a pitch out play Carol Tweedie connected with the ball to pick up a safe hit as the Albion fielders moved on the pitch to take up positions for the pitch out.

With runners on first and second and only one down the next batter drove up the middle and while the second base, Natalie Hazelwood, stopped the ball brilliantly she was left spreadeagled on the ground unable to throw the ball for the out, Emma Richards then stepped into the box and hit safely to centre field to score Hollander. With bases loaded Albion picked off the lead runner at the plate for two down and then Hazelwood relieved the pressure by taking a good catch for the third out of the innings. Monowai’s veteran, Margaret Machirus, scored Monowai’s two further runs, in the fifth and seventh respectively. On both occasions she picked up hits to make base to give her a batting average for the game of 500.

W L F APT Burnside 2 0 14 0 4 Albion 2 0 13 3 4 Papanui 0 2 0 8 0 Monowai 0 2 3 19 0 Burnside 4, Papanui 0