Giants rock the opposition and the record books

Two of the most powerful forces in men's softball in New Zealand - Hutt Valley and Wellington, were rocked by results achieved by the Masterton- based Giants club in club matches played on Saturday.
Giants carved up the once mighty Cardinals by a devastating 16-2 in a Hutt Valley competition match and hammered Hutt Valley Marist 7-0 in a game counting towards the Inter-City competition which involves the top club sides from Wellington and Hutt Valley.
Their assistant coach Russell Thompson has been a Giants stalwart for some years now and he made no secret of how he rated their latest two successes.
"It would be the best day's work ever for Giants in these competitions.
"You just don't expect to win at this level by those sort of scores," he enthused.
"We've had good results before but two like this in one day - never."
It wasn't so long ago that Cardinals ranked as the number one club in the country and for Giants to wallop them by 14 runs in a game which lasted six innings was nothing short of sensational.
Sure, Cardinals are nowhere as strong as in their heyday but to be beaten by as much as 14 runs is still very much foreign territory to them
And, of course, it was a record score for Giants against Cardinals, results of past clashes invariably having favoured the latter by relatively wide margins.
As has been the case all season to date, it was the consistency of their batting which highlighted the Giants's performance.
Incredibly, they hit seven automatic home runs during the course of the game and that against a Cardinals line-up which had an ex-Black Sox player on the pitching mound.
Three of the home runs were scored by Corie Karaitiana and if that wasn't impressive enough how about this - they came at his first three turns at bat.
Mark Quinn was responsible for two of the other home runs and Jared Lambert and Richard Clarke joined the party as well.
"The batting was fantastic, no other word could describe it," said Thompson.
"To see the ball go over the fence seven times - wow, it's unbelievable!"
As well as scoring his home run , Clarke also grabbed the limelight by pitching the whole game for Giants and conceding just the two runs and while there was an early mistake in the field which allowed a run to be scored the effort there was also of the highest quality.
"It was one of those all-round performances you dream about. We got on top right from the word go and they (Cardinals) had no answer," Thompson said.
The final scoreline might not have been as stunning but Giants were about as impressive as they had been against Cardinals when they demolished Hutt Valley Marist in another game which lasted six innings.
Thompson said from the time Giants opened in their account at their second turn at bat there was only one team in it with Giants scoring in each innings from then on and Hutt Valley Marist not even managing to get a runner past second base.
With Clarke battling an injury, Blair Thompson was given the pitching duties for Giants and he came up with an outstanding game, assisted as he was by some excellent work in the field. And again the batting was solid.
"It was a comfortable win, really comfortable," Thompson said.
"We always seemed to have things under control. They never threatened us."
Saturday's two wins advanced Giants's unbeaten run to eight and with two wins from as many games they are the only side yet to taste defeat in the Hutt Valley competitipon.
And they are also up with the pace in the Inter-City series where they have had two wins and three losses, one of the latter by just one run.
Giants's management concede that maintaining such impressive form against such formidable opposition will be a difficult challenge but as Russell Thompson points out their scoring of 62 runs in their last six games indicates that no team can take them for granted.
"Confidence grows from putting bat to ball and we're doing that about as well as anyone," he said.
The Wairarapa sporting community will have the chance to watch Giants in action when they play Hutt City United in a double header at Masterton's South Park next Saturday, the first game starting at 1pm and the second at 3pm.