Giants outstanding in bid to defend league title

Cross Country Rentals Giants have made an outstanding start in their bid to defend their Hutt Valley premier league men's softball title.
Two successes at Fraser Park, Avalon on Thursday night and another at South Park, Masterton on Saturday took their record to four wins from as many matches and placed them at the head of the competition table.
Former Black Sox Malcolm Namana showed what an acquisition he will be to Giants over the remainder of the season by smashing an automatic home run at his very first turn at bat in Thursday night's opener against Cardinals, a game won by Giants 4-2.
Others to star with the bat in that particular game were Blair Thompson, Gordon Wilmshurst, Campbell Gaunt and Nathan Shannahan with Shannahan also making a decent fist of filling in for brother Ryan Shannahan in the crucial short stop position.
Also starring for Giants was pitcher Ritchie Clarke who took eight strikeouts while conceding just the four hits.
Second up on Thursday night Giants demolished Dodgers 7-0, a match notable for the fact that coach Tony Nixon took to the diamond at catcher.
His combination with pitcher Justin Karaitiana was impressive with Karaitiana finishing with nine strikeouts while giving up just the four hits.
Terry Waitere, Ritchie Clarke and Gordon Wilmshurst all hit automatic home runs for Giants and Karaitiana completed a fine all-round performance by managing three safe hits.
Saturday saw Giants up against Cardinals at South Park in two matches, the first counting towards the Hutt Valley premier league and the second towards the Inter-City series.
It was Cardinals who took a 1-0 in the fifth innings in the opening encounter but Giants struck back in the sixth innings.
Blair Thompson was walked to first base and then moved to second on a hit by Terry Waitere.
Up stepped Ryan Shannahan and he sent the ball over the fence for an automatic home run, thereby scoring both himself and Thompson to give Giants a 2-1 advantage.
Cardinals was not done with, however, and they levelled things up at 2-2 in the top of the seventh before Giants snatched a 3-2 victory with some superb pressure batting. Firstly Nathan Shannahan was walked to first base and made it around to third thanks to good batting from Justin Karaitiana and Campbell Gaunt This brought veteran Russell Thompson to the plate and he drove the hit which enabled Shannahan to score the run which gave Giants a thrilling 3-2 win.
Thompson usually fills the assistant coaching role for Giants but with Jason O'Leary, Malcolm Namana and Gordon Wilmshurst all unavailable to play on Saturday he was drafted into the playing line-up. His son Blair Thompson also starred with the bat as did Ryan Shannahan, Justin Karaitiana and Campbell Gaunt.
And Karaitiana had impressive stats on the pitching mound too, taking seven strikeouts and conceding just the two hits.
The Inter-City series fixture with Cardinals on Saturday was another cracker of a game with Cardinals winning 2-0 through runs scored in the fourth and sixth innings. Ritchie Clarke pitched that game for Giants and finished with eight strikeouts while giving up just two hits.
Former Black Sox David Butler was at short stop for Cardinals and he pulled off a couple of spectacular plays in the field.
Giants coach Tony Nixon was delighted with the form shown by his side on Thursday night and again on Saturday.
"You can't complain about getting three wins from four games against opposition of that calibre, especially when we were a little below full strength both days," he said. "The level of commitment was outstanding, we couldn't have asked for anything more."
Nixon also paid tribute to the support given his side by a large and enthusiastic crowd. "The atmosphere was something else, it was just great to see so many people turn up and get behind our side," he said.
The Giants premier two team chalked up their first win in their Hutt Valley competition with an exciting 17-13 win over Cardinals at South Park on Saturday, the game going to a eighth innings tie breaker. Jamie Niania struck three automatic home runs for Giants with others going to Greg Paku and Mark Fricker. Pitcher Puru Kahukura showed impressive coolness over the closing stages of the game.
Also playing at South Park on Saturday was the Giants under-15 boys team which beat their Cardinals counterparts 13-6. Top performers for Giants were Sean Robinson, Kyle Morris, Josh Rowlands and Jesse Brown.
The Giants President's grade side won their match against Cardinals on Saturday by default.