Softball: Sweet revenge for Wellington

INVERCARGILL - The Wellington side gained the edge in the race to the coveted No 1 seeding at the men's inter-provincial softball championships yesterday when
they shut out key rivals Canterbury 2-0 in a tense eight-innings tiebreaker.

The win was sweet revenge for Wellington after having lost to Canterbury on the opening day, their only loss of the tournament so far. And it was a big step towards winning the Beatty Cup as the round-robin play winner.

Wellington made it two wins for the day with a resounding 15-0 win over Southland and now need to repeat their earlier win over neighbours Hutt Valley today to cement the top qualifying spot.

Canterbury and Hutt Valley are still in with a chance to take the top play-off spot after solid performances yesterday and much will be determined when the two play each other this morning and Hutt Valley take on Wellington in the final round-robin game.

Hutt Valley overcame the teams that caused them problems on Sunday, downing Otago 5-0 and Southland 10-4.

One of Hutt's stars, second baseman Craig Symons, started the action with the bat against Otago, leading to two runs in the top of the first. However, Otago had their game on track for the next five innings behind the pitching of Derek Coleman to deny Hutt Valley further runs until three runners crossed in the seventh.

Pitcher Brad Baker, meanwhile, had too much guile for the Otago batters to record a no-hit shutout with only one batter making base.

Otago could not match that effort when they met Canterbury later, being well thumped 10-1. Batters Josh Bryen, Greg Newton and Jamie Frisby did most of the damage for the winners and Newton also held Otago to three hits in a man-of-the-match display.

Wellington's win over Canterbury was a two hits each affair through seven innings, with Vincent Swanwick impressive on the mound for Wellington.

However, Wellington made the most of their tiebreaker turn to score twice and Canterbury were out of the game. - NZPA