Giants made to work hard for win

Giants were made to work hard for their 5-4 win over Hutt Valley Marist in their Inter-City series men's softball match played at South Park, Masterton on Saturday.
The two teams were level-pegging at 4-4 going into the seventh and last innings and Giants grabbed a one-run advantage when Ryan Shannahan made it to home base after a well-placed hit by Murray Brown.
It was then over to Giants pitcher Ritchie Clarke to keep Hutt Valley Marist scoreless and he did so, striking out of two of their batters in the process.
Earlier Giants had scored in the first innings when Ryan Shannahan came home on a wild pitch and they went 2-0 ahead after a Gordon Wilmshurst automatic home run.
Hutt Valley Marist then came back with two runs of their own before a Justin Karaitiana hit brought two Giants runners home to give them a 4-2 advantage.
But Hutt Valley Marist were anything but quitters and again they evened things up at 4-4 only to concede the run to Shannahan which counted most in the final analysis.
Giants coach Tony Nixon admitted his team were a little "rusty" in some areas and he wondered too whether their struggles in the batting department, in particular, were caused by them being too anxious to secure a home win.
"I think there were times when we were trying a bit too hard to get bat on ball, we could have benefited from being a little more patient," he said.
Nixon also praised Hutt Valley Marist who he said were a young side with plenty of character. "They never stopped fighting, they made us work hard for everything we got," he said.