Giants? catcher bounces back to help snatch win

Giants catcher Curtis Ames was in the wars during his team's Inter-City premier league men's softball match against Cardinals at South Park, Masterton on Saturday but bounced back to play a major hand in his side's vital 4-3 win.
Ames was knocked off his feet when Cardinals mounted a stirring comeback in the sixth innings.
Down 3-0 going into that innings the visitors benefitted from some shoddy Giants fielding.
They scored three runs and would have probably have got a fourth but for a player heading to home base deciding to forgo the usual slide to take Ames, who was protecting the base, out instead.
It was a decision which saw Ames take a heavy fall and saw which players from both teams confront each other in animated discussions.
Cardinals were arguing the run should still count and Giants just as adamant it shouldn't.
And, in the end, the umpires sided with Giants and the player was ruled out.
This left the scores tied at 3-3 with Giants going into their last turn at bat and it was fitting that after first batter Corie Karaitiana had hit safely and designated runner Terry Waitere got to second base it should be Ames who made the hit which brought Waitere home for what was to be the winning run.
Earlier it was Mark Quinn who had starred with the bat for Giants.
His effort came in the fifth innings with the scores tied at 0-0 and with Giants having two runners on bases but two out.
It was a pressure sitiuation for a player who had been struck out twice previously, but Quinn responded magnificently, driving the ball to the centre field fence and bringing the two runners home.
Outstanding too for Giants was pitcher Richard Clarke who pitched the whole game for his team and conceded just the one hit.
For Giants the win was crucial as it took their points tally to 17 in the Inter-City series.
This almost certainly guarantees them a place in the top six playoffs of that competition which features the premier club sides in Hutt Valley and Wellington, something they have never managed before.
Making the victory even sweeter was the fact that in a Hutt Valley premier division competition match played earlier in the day it was Cardinals who had prevailed 5-2.
Giants went up 1-0 up early in proceedings, but then Cardinals recovered strongly to score five runs without reply and while Giants got one back towards the end of the game the leeway was too great to make up.
Giants did, however, provide one of the game's more memorable moments when they pulled off a double play.
Cardinals had runners on bases one and three and the base one runner tried to "steal' to two.
He was taken out there and the runner on base three was also given out as he tried desperately to make the home plate.
While disappointed with the end result of that game, Giants assistant coach Russell Thompson was happy his side had at least managed a bonus point and, consequently, kept their hopes of making the playoffs in the Hutt Valley competition very much alive.
"We didn't hit the ball as it we should have?.we kept getting runners on bases and not bringing them home," he said.
"In the end we should have done better but at least the bonus point was a positive"
The Giants premier two team scored a resounding 10-2 win over their Cardinals counterparts, while the Giants vets were beaten 2-14 by Dodgers.