Giants make play-offs

Giants are through to the top six play-offs in the Inter-City men's softball competition which features the premier club sides in Wellington and Hutt Valley.
They are guaranteed a shot at the title by defeating both Royals and Porirua in close, enthralling matches on Saturday,
Pitcher Justin Karaitiana took centre stage as Giants beat Royals, of Wellington, 2-0 ? sweet revenge for the defeat suffered at the hands of the same team at the Wanganui Braves tournament the previous weekend.
Karaitiana kept a strong batting line-up under wraps while starring with the bat were Mark Quinn and Gordon Wilmshurst, who were responsible for the two hits which provided Giants with their two runs.
With five past or present Black Sox in their line-up Porirua were always going to provide formidable opposition but Giants had things pretty well under control when they led 5-2 at the end of the sixth innings.Porirua did make a late charge which reduced the advantage to one but Giants held on to win 5-4.
Richard Clarke was on the pitching mound for Giants in this game and showed a cool temperament under pressure and there was an impressive consistency in the batting and fielding effort
Regular catcher for Giants, Canadian Curtis Ames, was unable to fill that crucial role in either game through injury and Corey Karaitiana did a splendid job as his replacement.
Coach Tony Nixon said Giants had gone into the two matches determined to seal a top six play-off place.
"We knew one win would do it for us but to get two ... well, that was the icing on the cake," he said.
Saturday's victories came hard on the heels of two other excellent wins by Giants on Thursday night when they defeated Hutt Valley Marist 10-3 and Dodgers 11-1 in games counting towards the Hutt Valley premier division championship which they won last year.
The Hutt Valley Marist game was closer than the score would indicate as after the scores were locked at 2-2 at the end of the seven innings three extra innings had to be played. In the last of those Giants went on a run-scoring spree to guarantee the win.
Justin Karaitiana took the eye with the bat in that game, slamming a home run and bringing in three other runners in the process.