Softball: Auckland, Harbour in with title chance

Auckland and North Harbour are both still in with a chance of making the national men's provincial final going into the final round of section play in Christchurch today.

Auckland took a decent step closer to winning just their fourth national provincial men's title in 40 years when they beat North Harbour 3-0 in the battle of the bridge yesterday.

However, they then lost to the hosts 2-0 last night to open up prospects for the Canterbury Red Sox, who have struggled in the tournament.

This morning, North Harbour play Canterbury and Hutt Valley face Auckland, with the two final spots on the line. Three of them are on one loss and Canterbury have two losses.

Auckland, who last won the national title in 1995, have become favourites at the championships after defending champions Wellington were demoted to the second division and Canterbury were yesterday beaten 2-1 by their own B side.

Hutt Valley also suffered a setback yesterday when they were beaten 1-0 by North Harbour, courtesy of a single-shot home run by Clayton Willocks.

Michael Gaiger pitched a smart game for Auckland against North Harbour, giving up just one hit - to lead-off batter Rod Caddy - and allowing just one other batter to make base.

Auckland got the jump on Harbour straight away when lead-off Nathan Nukunuku hit the ball out of the park in the bottom of the first innings. Their other two runs also came on a homer, this time from the bat of Patrick Shannon in the sixth innings, when Donny Hale was already on base. Both Hale and Shannon have been in great form with the bat at this tournament. Gaiger is another who can virtually pack his bags for February's series against world No 2 Japan.

But the upset of the tournament came when the Canterbury B side beat the Canterbury Red Sox 2-1. In a dramatic climax, Jason Croy batted in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh innings.

Meanwhile, Wellington, unbeaten in the second division, look likely to clinch that title today as some consolation for missing out on the top six.