KEY POINTS:
Auckland and Hutt Valley retained their national men's and women's titles in Wellington yesterday.
Hutt Valley came from two runs down to beat Auckland 9-2 in the women's final, while the Auckland men's team were leading Wellington 6-3 when rain forced the game to be abandoned.
Auckland were declared winners because they were the top qualifiers.
In the women's final Auckland, who earlier had beaten Canterbury 3-2 in a tie-breaker to book their place in the final, made a terrific start with lead-off batter Kala Gabriel and number two in the batting order Sina Hunkin both opening the run account for their side.
Hutt Valley did manage to snatch one run back in their first turn at bat, but it was in the third inning that the floodgates opened with Cindy Potae, Kiri Shaw, Tali Tonu'u, Tatiana Holodnow and Shirley Povey all scoring runs to end any hopes of an Auckland victory.
The men's final was set for a home run feast until the rain ended any hopes. In the three innings completed, four over the fence hits had been made.
During the match Auckland starting pitcher Heinie Shannon was knocked out by a ball coming off Stacy McLean's bat and it looked like his part in the game was over.
However, he watched as two of his team-mates managed to get on base and then stepped into the batting box and struck his first pitch over the right field fence.
