Albion beats old rival to represent Canty

Press, 3 February 1986, Page 3

Albion beats old rival to represent Canty

For the seventh consecutive season Robert Brown Albion has qualified to represent Canterbury at the national women’s softball interclub tournament, which this year will be held in Lower Hutt in March, by beating its old rival, Burnside, 2-1, yesterday. The match was a hard, close affair with neither side being able to dominate. It was charged with tension from the outset.

The tension, in fact, was highlighted in the first innings as both sides struggled in the field to throw the ball with accuracy.

At the top of the first, with one down, Cheryl Kemp powered a ball to the infield and made first. Natalie Hazelwood then dropped a bunt and a wild throw enabled Kemp to make third, with Hazelwood on second. Trina Whittaker also

drove to the infield and Kemp raced for the plate where the ball was dropped, allowing Albion to score. With still only one down Chris Tew filed to left field, and on the catch being taken Hazelwood broke for home, only to be caught in a hot box and eventually taken out in the run down. The bottom of the frame produced further excitement and tension as Jane Earnshaw dropped a bunt which was errored and the speedster made third. She was then sacrificed home on a right field fly by Robyn Storer to tie the match up. Early nerves were not evident after this innings, as both sides displayed excellent defensive skills.

Albion lost a scoring opportunity at the top of the third. The lead-off, Kim Hook, made base on a left-field drive, second

on a passed ball and third on a sacrifice by Lynda O’Cain. Slick fielding by Burnside’s Linda Manning kept Hook intact on third, while Anita Perreau took a great driving catch off the bat of Hazelwood to prevent a further run. Burnside went three up, three down until the fifth and then it was Manning who applied the pressure as the lead-off with an 1 amazingly-high hit, which neither short stop nor left field could glove. Paula Kay sacrificed to advance Manning and this time it was Albion’s field that prevented the run being scored. The match reached its peak at the top of the seventh when Albion’s lead-off, Tew, drove to left field. A sacrifice by the designated hitter, Vicky Upton, took Tew to second. Penny Salton then hit the ball, which was

tipped by Manning’s glove, and in the process of Perreau endeavouring to cover she and Tew collided. Initially the base umpire made the out call for interference on Tew. However, the ball had already passed an infielder and therefore no interference can exist. The call was changed. With two down, O’Cain singled to right field to score Tew and give Albion a one-run lead. In the bottom of the frame Albion showed a lot of determination to have Burnside three up, three down. Statistically Albion outplayed Burnside with six runners left on base to Burnside’s one, Albion picked up six hits to one, while Albion conceded only one error in the field to Burnside’s two.