Hometown sides up against it
Stoke Eagles coach Stu Power said he’d prefer to have their peak tournament at the end of the season, rather than at the start.
But he still relishes the chance to take on some of the country’s best softball talent at the Labour Weekend Open at the beginning of their yearly campaign.
‘‘It’d be a lot better but you just have to take what you can and it’s great to have all these teams here,’’ Power said, with a record nine teams entered this year.
The Eagles and the United Titans are the two local teams that feature year in and year out at the Saxton Ballpark tournament, which is traditionally held at Labour Weekend and right at the beginning of the season.
Both Nelson teams have struggled to get results against the out of town teams in previous years and that trend has continued again in 2016 with the Titans still searching for their first win.
The Eagles have fared better though, and for the second year in a row have tallied two victories.
First up the Eagles edged the Titans 9-8 to earn local bragging rights and then, in the final game on Sunday afternoon, they beat the Halswell Hornets 10-5.
‘‘We said if we’d get two or three wins then it’d be good, and if we got more than so be it.
‘‘But we’ve got a reasonably young squad so we can’t ask for much more.’’
Power said the Eagles have shadowed most opponents for prolonged periods but generally make mistakes in the fifth innings, and they get punished for it.
‘‘You make one error and it’ll cost you one or two runs, easy.’’
Their closest defeat was a 5-3 loss to Marlborough’s Saints.
Defending champions Poneke Kilbirnie remain the only undefeated team heading into day three and appear on track for another finals appearance, while the Albion Anteaters and PCU have lost just once are are still firmly in the hunt too.
Today’s final begins at 1.45pm.