Masterton Intermediate's unbeaten softball champions haven't done a bad job cleaning up at the first supersport tournament of the year, considering they'd never played a game together as a team before.
A further twist to this success tale is that the 11-aside boys' team had one girl in it
Emma Kruszona whose star batting skills were such that she scored the only home run of the match.
"Emma is one of the best swingers of a softball bat that I've seen, of boys and girls," co-coach and deputy principal Russell Thompson said.
"It won't be the only home run she'll get. I think there'll be more to come."
Masterton Intermediate, the only Wairarapa team in the competition held at Colquhoun Park in Palmerston North on Wednesday, scored the following results: 14-nil against St Peters, a 15-nil win against Palmerston North Intermediate Normal, an 11-2 result against Ross Intermediate, a 4-2 win against Wanganui and a 5-2 score in the final against Rutherford.
"Wanganui was difficult," player Donald Reisima said. Fellow softballer Matthew Treur concurred: "They had sharper fielding."
Levi Harmon pitched for all five games, only gave up to six walks and hit one batter all day, while the team overall scored 52 runs and conceded just four.
"We are very proud of them," Thompson said. "Out of the whole team only one player went to this tournament last year, which we also won. Up until that we'd only had two trainings. Everyone did well, the whole team. I was a bit hard on them at times, but that's how you learn, eh?"
One of the elements of supersport, a concept established in 1994 to encourage top intermediate sporting kids to compete, is the parental and relative support from the sidelines, which champion softballer Dean Gray reckons adds extra credence to the title.
"We could just go around saying that we played awesomely and they might not believe us," he said.
Meanwhile, Thompson said that some of the new champions are "looking forward" to a Hutt Valley Association tournament in term four.
They were beaten in the final last year by Porirua, but expect another strong performance from these young softball stars in December.
