Poor mental application, numerous errors and a lack of pitching depth contributed to Hawke's Bay's 12th placing at the national under-17 boys softball tournament which ended in Palmerston North yesterday.
"We conceded too many soft runs, as simple as that," Bay coach Waka Wilkie said last night.
His troops finished the four-day, 16-team event with two wins and six losses. On Saturday they lost 6-4 to Canterbury and 7-4 to Hutt Valley B, and yesterday Manawatu beat the Bay 9-7.
"Some of our boys still hadn't learnt the signals by the end of the tournament. Some of the boys from my own Fast Pitch club were among those and that was hard to take," Wilkie said.
"While Kahurangi [Beamsley-Allan] and Kupa [Isherwood] gave their all on the mound we don't have the pitching depth we once had in the Bay and that's through the grades," he added.