Softball: Last-gasp homer shatters White Sox' hopes of upset

By CHRIS RATTUE

One crashing hit broke the hearts of the New Zealand women's softball side on their Olympic debut last night as they went down 3-2 to Australia.

A 2 hour 40 minute thriller at the $21m Blacktown softball ground ended when left filed Peta Edebone crashed a Gina Weber pitch well over the outfield fence to end the game in the third extra innings.

The match at the 8500 seat ground was listed as a sellout - although there was a decent sprinkling of empty seats - providing a brilliant back drop to New Zealand's Olympic opener.

Weber and Australian pitcher Melanie Roche held centre stage for much of the night in a David and Goliath battle.

Weber stands 1.9m tall, Roche just 1.65m.

They went toe-to-toe in a battle that included brilliant fielding under the superb Blacktown floodlighting.

Australia are the Goliath and New Zealand the David of world softball these days, a role reversal that has occurred over the past couple of decades.

New Zealand looked as though they were on the verge of a massive boilover against the home side, heavy favourites to meet the United States in the final.

The first two extra innings were scoreless after it was 1-all after seven.

The 10th sees the introduction of the tiebreak runner, who starts on second base.

It was the 37-year-old Weber, making a one-off Olympic comeback after five years of retirement, who smoked the ball back past Roche to bring in New Zealand's run.

But Edebone had the answer, hitting a fast ball well over the fence between left and centre field.

New Zealand and Weber had held their nerve well in the final stages, intentionally walking three Australian batters to good effect.

But Australia were not to be denied and a superb finish from Edebone was greeted by a volume of noise the New Zealanders would rarely have experienced.

The match almost missed going into extra time.

The bottom of the seventh innings was a softball classic, as Weber and her defence hung on when Australia looked like clinching the match.

Weber began with an out, but then gave up a walk. Fiona Hanes then got on base when Rhonda Hira deflected the hit away from short stop Lisa Kersten.

The bases became loaded when New Zealand decided to walk Australia's designated hitter Sue Fairhurst.

But with a full count on Natalie Titcume, the Australian third base hit the ball to Jackie Smith, and the contest remained alive.

The match started with a "celebrity" opening pitch from Australian IOC vice-president Kevan Gosper, the man who arranged for his daughter to begin the Olympic torch run in Greece.

His appearance was greeted mainly with cheers but some fairly healthy booing as well.

In other games, the favoured sides all started with wins. The United States beat Canada 6-0, China beat Italy 5-0 and Japan beat Cuba 4-1.