Giants unable to break drought

Cross Country Rentals Giants men's softball squad went to Hastings over the weekend determined to break their drought of major tournament successes, and once again had to accept the bridesmaid's tag.
They were beaten 7-3 by the powerful Porirua United squad in the grand final with an unusually high error rate counting heavily against them.
"We just weren't consistent enough in the field, that's what cost us in the end," coach Tony Nixon said.
Giants started promisingly, racing out to a 3-0 lead through a Terry Waitere hit bringing home both Murray Brown and Blair Thompson and then Waitere scoring himself from a Ritchie Clarke hit.
Unfortunately for Giants, however, they could not add further to their total while Porirua struck back with seven runs of their own to take the title.
For Giants it was their second defeat by Porirua as they also lost their opening pool game to them by 5-4.
Ryan Shannahan hit a home run there and there were other good batting efforts from Joseph O'Leary, Ritchie Clarke Gordon Wilmshurst and Terry Waitere.
Second up Giants edged out Dodgers from Hawke's Bay 3-2 in a game in which pitcher Justin Karaitiana suffered a suspected broken finger after attempting to stop a ball hit back at him.
Giants then looked in big trouble against Saints of Hawke's Bay when they trailed by 6-0 at the end of the first innings but spearheaded by Ryan Shannahan, who hit a home run, they staged a splendid recovery to win 7-6.
That victory book Giants in a semi-final against Cardinals and again Shannahan, who had the tournament's best batting average for all teams of .675, led the way in their 5-3 victory.
Blair Thompson, Ritchie Clarke, Gordon Wilmshurst and Murray Brown also batted well in that particular game.
While disappointed Giants did not take the major honours Nixon was still pleased with their performance, particularly considering several key players were struggling with injury concerns.
"Just to make the final showed a lot of character", he said.