Woolston does it in style

Press, 19 December 1988, Page 25

Woolston does it in style

All the ups and downs for Woolston-Cardinals previously this season will be distant memories after the side won the premier men’s softball champion-of-champion series at Cuthberts Green yesterday in fine style.

The youthful Woolston-Car-dinals side had pulled off a shock 5-3 victory over the national league team and top seed, United, in a ninthinnings tiebreaker to make the final and then pushed aside Papanui, 5-1, to take the title. Woolston-Cardinals had not beaten either side before this season and Arnold Hall, who took over as coach little more than a fortnight ago, was a happy man. “It was our day, today,” he said. The success against United was especially sweet.

In the final Woolston quickly took the initiative with a run to its second batter, Mike Rush, in the bottom of the first inning. Rush was assisted by some Papanui fielding blemishes, making first base on an infield error, stealing to second, getting an extra base on an overthrow and coming home on a passed ball.

The lead was stretched out to 3-0 in the fourth inning when the side’s catcher and top batter, Craig Van Dugteren, and the big outfielder, Ted Forrester both scored. Forrester brought home his team-mate with a hit that fell just short of the centre-outfielder and scored himself later on a fielder’s choice.

In the end Papanui and its pitcher, Colin Sutherland, did well to restrict the opposition to two runs in the frame as the bases were subsequently loaded with none down.

Papanui cut the deficit back to two runs when the top-of-the-order batter, Tim Hickey, batted in John Collings in the top of the fifth.

But the three-run margin was restored when Van Dugteren scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the. fifth and one inning later Darrell Chick loped home on a deep

sacrifice hit by the pinch hitter, Shane de Latour. Woolston-Cardinals outbatted Papanui by seven hits to four with its pitcher Jimmy Hall securing eight strikeouts. With the bat he did his best to put hits out of the park, striking the fence on the full for one three-base hit and being caught just inside the barrier on another occasion.

Shane Nalepa batted .500 for Woolston-Cardinals and showed remarkable agility at third base to take a catch from a mishit that seemed to have cleared him. Both sides had five men left on bases, Papanui missing one royal chance in the sixth when it had runners on third and first with none down.

The final was played on the No. 1 skin diamond but most of the drama had came outside on an open field diamond when two mighty hits sealed Woolston’s win over United.

After regulation innings the scores were locked up at 2-2 and neither side managed to add to its account in the first tiebreak inning. In the top of the ninth, however, Woolston came out with its big bats blazing. With Aaron Flynn automatically on second base Rush steered an error-assisted home run down the right field line and then Van Dugteren walloped a towering home run hit over centre field. The Woolston players and their coach could not restrain their delight.

Up until that inning United’s pitcher, Gerard Graham, had restricted the Woolston batters to one hit. Both the run-scorers in regulation innings had made base on an error. Hall scoring in the fourth on a wayward throw from the outfield. Three runs were too much for United to catch up in the bottom of the ninth and the best it could manage was getting home its automatic base-runner, Neil Stuart, on a sacrifice hit by Roy Ah Kuoi.

United had scored its first run through Ah Kuoi after

consecutive errors in the second inning and three innings later Paul Shannon tied the game up at 2-2 with a big home run over centre field.

Playing on the inside diamond Papanui had held off a bold last-inning rally by Burnside to make the final. Down 1-3 Burnside grabbed back one run in the bottom of the seventh when Chris Britt’s safe bunt brought home Vince Flynn. More runs seemed to beckon but the match ended on a fine double play with the bases loaded. The Papanui pitcher, Steve Paul, played a big part in the win, batting in his side’s first two runs in the top of the first inning and controlling things fairly well on the mound. Paul took two strikeouts but, more importantly, kept Burnside down to four safe hits.

In Saturday’s games Papanui was the most comfortable winner, overcoming Merivale, 4-1, at Western Park while Woolston-Cardinals had prevailed in a 1-0 scoreline against Richmond at Papanui Domain.

Woolston-Cardinals scored through its lead-off batter, Aaron Flynn, in the bottom of the first inning and maintained that one-run advantage without a lot of trouble. Flynn made base on a safe hit, advanced to second' on a passed ball and got all the way home on a hit by Rush which deflected into the outfield off short stop. Two scoring opportunities later were thwarted by fine double plaj’s by the Richmond fielders, one of them in the bottom of the fourth when the third baseman, Mike Timu, clung on to a hard drive by Rush and then caught Hall off second base for the second out. As well as whacking a twobase hit to the fence Hall was in dominant mood on the pitching mound, grabbing 12 strike-outs and giving up only two hits and no walks.

Sirt of pitchers, Richtried Brian Wright on the mound and he did a fair

job, conceding six hits with Chick batting 1000.

Richmond did not look like scoring, though runners were stranded on first and second bases in the bottom of the sixth. In the final frame Brad Sherry’s hit seemed to have found a gap but the shortstop, Davey Hawker, dived full length to take a brilliant catch.

Papanui was firmly in control of its match against Merivale almost from the start, though the statistics indicate a fairly even balance. Hits: Papanui 7, Merivale 5. Left on base: Papanui 9, Merivale 8.

Part of the difference was the quality of Papanui’s hits, including a massive Paul three-bagger and a John Collings double, and the five fielding errors made by Merivale, three of them at shortstop. Merivale had runners left on base in every inning, but failed to score until the bottom of the seventh when Chris Camm’s solid hit to the outfield brought home Glen Lapslie. Colin Sutherland and Paul shared the pitching for Papanui and also had a fair measure of success with the bat. Paul produced the triple base hit in his only appearance at the plate and Sutherland batted .500, continuing some of the form he showed when he recorded a perfect average against Richmond the previous week-end. Merivale’s coach, David Bradbury, had the extra job of being the “man in the middle” in this game. The first-string pitcher, Murray Britt, had fingers on his left hand broken and dislocated after being struck by a ball during batting practice a few' days earlier. Results:—

First round: Woolston-Car-dinals 1, Richmond 0; Papanui 4, Merivale 1. Semi-finals: Woolston-Car-dinals 5, United 3 (9 innings): Papanui 3, Burnside 2. Final: Woolston-Canjiinals 5, Papanui 1.