Softball: Ugly incidents in playoff threatened to mar victory

New Zealand pitcher Jimmy Wana's softball equivalent of the beanball inflamed the Canadians in their world series playoff match.

Two incidents in which the dugouts emptied and there was wholesale pushing and shoving on the diamond took a little of the gloss off the Black Sox' 13-5 victory on Saturday.

Hardly had the diamond cleared after the first incident in the bottom of the fourth at Smokefree Ballpark than Wana threw a loose pitch which struck the next batter, Darren Box, on the helmet.

That was like a red rag to the Canadian bull moose with pitches in the direction of the head regarded as extreme provocation in North American softball and baseball.

Discarding his helmet, Box charged towards Wana, and one of the three Canadian co-captains, Dean Holoien, led a charge from his dugout with coach Mark Smith not able to physically stop the maple leaf tide.

The Canadians obviously saw the hit pitch as retaliation, but Black Sox coach Don Tricker was adamant afterwards that it was not deliberate.

"They may have felt that, but if they take a bit of time to reflect, that would be an absolutely ridiculous thing for us to do," Tricker said.

"When you're up 6-1, the one thing you don't want to do is give base runners away [Box getting a free ride to first base]. So that pitch definitely wasn't deliberate."

The umpires subsequently ejected Holoien from the game for becoming involved in the dispute from the dugout, and Wana received a warning for the head-high pitch. The first incident flared after Canadian Jody Eidt slid into third base and took exception to being pushed off it by New Zealand's Brad Rona.

- NZPA