Giants continued their frustrating trend of making "ugly starts" but still produced good enough results for them to maintain their lead in the Inter-City men's softball series when they played a double header at Fraser Park, Petone on Sunday.
The Masterton-based side recovered from 7-3 down to pip Poneke-Kilbirnie 10-9 while
their 9-7 loss to Hutt City came after they trailed 1-8 at the bottom of the fifth innings.
Coach Tony Nixon admits to being at a loss to explain just why Giants are struggling to make any sort of impact early in their games.
"It's not for the want of trying, we're always talking about the need to put runs on the board in the first couple of innings but for some reason it's just not happening," he said. "I suppose you could say it's a work in progress but the answer isn't easy to find."
The Poneke-Kilbirnie match saw Giants behind 0-3, then 3-5 and 3-7 before a batting spurt saw them take a 8-7 lead. Poneke-Kilbirnie than struck back with two more runs to lead 9-8 before Giants had the final say, a home run by Justin Karaitiana being the clincher.
Remarkably, Karaitiana's home run was his second of the match and the fifth registered by Giants overall, others coming from the bats of Ritchie Clarke, Terry Waoitere and Joseph O'Leary.
"You don't often get a team hitting five homers in one match, especially not at this level," Nixon said. "It shows the power we have in that area, it's a huge asset when you're in chasing mode.".
While disappointed by his team's defeat by Hutt City Nixon said it was again encouraging to see Giants almost grab success after being on the ropes after just five innings. A home run by Blair Thompson played a big part in their revival and was the third recorded by Giants in this game, Justin Karaitiana and Ritchie Clarke achieving that feat as well..
"Batting-wise it was another excellent effort but at the end of the day you just can't expect to win at this level when you get so far behind," Nixon said. "We gave them too big a start, simple as that."
Giants are already guaranteed to make the Inter-City semi-finals for the very first time and they will actually qualify in the number one spot if they can beat Cardinals in the last of their top six playoff matches, the date of which had not been confirmed at the time these notes were penned.
