Huia Chiefs win battle

Huia Chiefs have come out on top 5-3 over Palmerston North Dodgers in a full seven-innings match in the latest round of the Manawatu¯ men’s club competition.

Both teams scored in the first inning, with the Chiefs scoring three runs and Dodgers two. The Chiefs scored their last two runs in the fifth inning, giving Cam Scott and Gareth Greenfield two runs apiece. Lachlan Hook scored the other.

Greenfield and AJ Dyason shared top batter, batting 0.250.

Dodgers had eight hits. All three were earned against Kelly Dyason, who was pitching for the Chiefs.

Pitching was shared by the Dodgers’ three pitchers, with Keelan Jongeneel pitching the first two, giving up the first three runs, then Teao Mulligan pitched the next two, giving up no runs. Finishing off was Caleb Watt, who gave up the last two runs. He took five strikeouts. Watt was the Dodgers’ top batter, with 0.500.

Blue Sox won 11-0 over Linton Sentinels, with the run-ahead rule invoked at the bottom of the fourth inning. The run-ahead rule was previously known as the mercy rule.

It was a welcome back to the Blue Sox for pitcher Regan Manley, pitching three of the four innings played. He faced 12 batters, and took eight strikeouts. Bryan Taiaroa faced seven. He gave up one walk and took two strikeouts. The top Blue Sox batter was Jason Kensington, who batted 1.000. Justin Grant was Linton’s top batter, with 0.500.

In the women’s competition,

came from behind to beat 12-10 in a hotly contested game. Bramac struggled, with single runs in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings.

The Aces were down 10-4 going into the seventh, but they batted first and pulled off eight runs to put them into a 12-10 lead, with Kingswood still to bat. Bramac defended and finished with three up and three down for the best comeback win of the season.

The top batter for Bramac was Rowena Cooper, who batted 1.000, scored two runs and was intentionally walked by Kingswood.

Pitcher Mary Ireland faced 34 batters, giving up 10 runs, and taking four strikeouts. Kingswood scored most of their runs in the second and third innings. Jamie Hudson and Amelia Jenson hit in-the-diamond home runs and Hudson was top batter, batting 0.750.

Pitcher Jess Pferrifie faced 44 batters, giving up 12 runs, 10 earned, 12 walks and 10 hits, and taking eight strikeouts.

A sixth-inning flurry led Whanganui Athletic to a 16-6 win

Matua Ma, with the run-ahead