Softball: Black Sox strike form

New Zealand continued their dominance at the world men's softball championships in Saskatoon, Canada, yesterday.

The Black Sox, winners of the last three tournaments, won their second game of the championship against Great Britain 14-0 in five innings.

Less than 24 hours earlier they hammered the US 15-0 in four innings.

The damage by the Black Sox batters came in just two innings.

In their second turn at bat they scored eight runs, adding a further six in the fourth.

"That was satisfying," Black Sox coach Eddie Kohlhase said afterwards.

"Everyone hit the ball very well and it was good offensive play."

Again, the experience of Jarrad Martin proved invaluable.

Martin hit one of four home runs and collected another hit in the game. He also batted in four of his teammates.

"He was outstanding," Kohlhase said.

At the other end of the experience scale, 20-year-old rookie Ben Enoka continued the Black Sox impressive record of introducing players to this level of the game, picking up a home run in his first turn at bat.

Travis Wilson and Gareth Cook also added their names to the home-run list.

However, Kohlhase and his pitching coaches Eric Wilson and Jim Wana admitted some concern at the officials' interpretation after Jeremy Manley was called for illegal pitching on a couple of occasions.

"It is just something we will need to act on now, and he will be doing some work with Eric and Jim," Kohlhase said.

"That was his first outing in a world championship though, and it was a good start."

Manley took nine strikeouts in the game and gave up only two hits.

But he conceded three walks, mainly as a result of the interpretation.

In other games the Philippines, who the Black Sox play on Monday, beat Mexico 7-4. Japan, who the Black Sox play on Friday in their final section game, were 9-4 winners over Botswana.

The United States bounced back from their loss to the Black Sox to beat Denmark 7-0.

In the other section, Canada - runners-up in the last championship - beat the Czech Republic 9-2, Venezuela were 11-0 winners over Argentina and South Africa beat Indonesia 7-0.

- NZPA