Softball: North Harbour team falter

Canterbury came through their first big test with a solid 4-2 win over North Harbour when the national men's interprovincial championships began in Dunedin yesterday.

Veteran pitcher Greg Newton led the effort by striking out 13 of the North Harbour batters while allowing just two hits in what was the feature match.

Canterbury, Hutt Valley and Wellington had two wins from two, while Auckland had one from one to be unbeaten.

Another win today against South Canterbury will ensure Canterbury's place in the top-six round-robin for the weekend.

They will meet Wellington in the late game tonight.

Canterbury also beat Western Bay of Plenty 14-1 yesterday and coach Ted Forrester was happy with the two wins, but said there was a bit for his team to work on.

"We're probably disappointed with the amount of scoring opportunities we had against Harbour that we didn't turn into runs."

Defending champions Wellington produced two comfortable shutout wins, overcoming South Canterbury 5-0 and Western BoP 15-0

Wellington managed only four hits against South Canterbury, but they included a Fabian Barlow home run and triples from John Stratford and Thomas Makea.

Wellington's win over Western BoP was all over in four innings, with pitcher Frank Pointon, 17, striking out nine of 12 batters faced, with no hits conceded.

United States-based pitcher Paul Algar proved his value for Hutt Valley by throwing a no-hitter and striking out 10 of 21 batters faced in their 5-0 win over Canterbury B.

His chance for a perfect game had been ruined when Errol Byrne picked up a walk in the second frame.

Hutt Valley later needed only three innings to beat Central Zone 21-1, with Malcolm Namana's two home runs the highlight of their 19-hit tally.

Otago had a spectacular 2-1 come-from-behind win over Central Zone, with infielders Scott Brown and Wayne Sangster hitting successive automatics with none out in the bottom of the seventh.

- NZPA