SOFTBALL: Look out for million-dollar teams, says veteran after two wins

Veteran Manaaki Mita continues to be the talk of Hawke's Bay's premier men's softball competition.
He's a 40-year-old who has pitched the bottom team in the pre-Christmas competition, the Dodgers, to the top of the table in the post-Christmas comp with two consecutive wins. Their latest was a 2-0 victory against Saints at Akina Park, Hastings, on Saturday.
Mita told SportToday he hadn't planned to come out of his 10-year retirement until next summer but his cousin and Dodgers catcher Joe O'Leary talked him into fast-tracking those plans.
"I'm enjoying it. There's a good mix of youth and experience in this team ... I'm happy to do as much as I can on the mound if the young fellahs keep putting their bodies on the line with the rest of the stuff," said Mita.
He believed the potential was there for the Dodgers to give the post-Christmas comp title a serious crack.
"I know Joe will give me plenty of stick when I don't throw the right pitches and that definitely lifts me," said Mita.
When he last played it was as a catcher for Fast Pitch. Yet SportToday could tell he must have been a handy pitcher in the past as he struck out four of the 18 Saints batters he faced and conceded just two hits and two walks.
"I started back when I was at the old St Stephen's College up on the Bombay Hills. Dallas and Wiremu were in our team," he said, referring to former All Black and Magpies flanker Dallas Seymour and former Canterbury rugby star Wiremu Maunsell.
Mita also let out a secret about the make-up of a team he will be playing for at the country's biggest softball tournament, the Fun in the Sun in Hastings on March 27 and 28.
"It's a family team with all the Mitas, the Mitchells and Joe [O'Leary]. On paper it's a million-dollar team ... we'll just have to see how it goes on the diamond," said Mita before heading off to start work as a bouncer at the Gin Trap.
SportToday understood where he was coming from as there are the likes of Jacob and Jordan Mita and Fabian Mitchell from the Maraenui Pumas premier side and while former Junior Black Sox infielder Kahutia Mitchell isn't playing this season it would be unlike him to turn down an invitation to play at the Fun in the Sun.
Experienced first baseman Joachim Paul was the Dodgers' top batter with two hits from three turns including a double and two RBIs. With his double he scored replacement outfielder Ryan Mudd and Mita for the only runs of the game in the fifth inning.
Mudd replaced Sean Brown who collapsed with an achilles injury in the third inning. The match was delayed while Brown received medical attention before he was carried off by teammates.
O'Leary and second baseman Piripi Te Nahu also collected two hits from three turns.
Saints pitcher Tamihana Hokianga struck out six of the 25 Dodgers batters he faced while conceding eight hits,
Pre-Christmas champions Maraenui Pumas remain winless in the post-Christmas comp after recording their second consecutive loss, 5-3 against Fast Pitch, at Tareha Reserve in Saturday's other match which required a tie-breaker inning after the score was 2-all at the end of regulation time.
Fast Pitch third baseman Puhi Rapaea hit centre outfielder and tie-breaker runner Cameron Willis home before short stop Te Rangi Chadwick smashed a three bagger to score Rapaea and second baseman Aaron Kuru. The Pumas' only reply saw centre outfielder Troy Caddy score on a pass ball.
Willis opened the scoring in the first inning on a hit from Chadwick. Pumas pitcher Hone Mark Sinnott scored the equaliser in the second when he capitalised on poor ball security from Fast Pitch catcher Kane Herbert. The Pumas took a 2-1 lead in the third when former Junior Black Sox catcher Grant Dean scored on a pass ball and Fast Pitch equalised in the fourth when player-coach and outfielder Rayner Te Wake scored on a pass ball.
Chadwick was Fast Pitch's top batter with two hits from four turns including the three bagger and three RBIs. Kuru, who impressed with his defensive work, picked three walks while first baseman Mario Herbert, a former Junior Black Sox utility, collected two hits from three turns at bat and produced a spectacular double play in the sixth.
The Pumas batters managed just two hits off rapidly improving Fast Pitch pitcher Jordan Waterhouse. The Pumas were unlucky to lose the services of starting pitcher Sinnott in the fourth inning when he collected a hand injury after attempting to field a hit from Fast Pitch outfielder Shane Walford.
Sinnott's replacement, Regan Manley, struggled to adapt to the calls of plate umpire Greg Taylor, particularly during the tie-breaker inning. While Waterhouse questioned a couple of Taylor's calls he didn't let them rattle him as much as Manley did.