Kaiapoi Softball set for record season
Kaiapoi Softball Club’s premier women’s team made a winning debut at the weekend.
It had been a long time coming – more than six years in the making – but Kaiapoi’s first ever Premier Womens team took to the diamond in the annual Spring Shootout at Mizuno Ballpark in Christchurch on Saturday.
In what is to be a record summer for the Kaiapoi club, North Canterbury’s only softball club, with their biggest number of teams across the senior and junior grades, led by their premier womens side.
After finally getting the nod from Canterbury Softball to officially enter for their inaugural season, the Kaiapoi women showed they will be one to watch.
For their debut game they managed a convincing 5-1 win a over Sydenham Kereru in their first 7 innings game .
They backed that effort up in their second game against Papanui, gaining early control of the match before shutting Papanui down early.
The strong results automatically qualified Kaiapoi for the final, however wet weather prevented any softball being played on Sunday.
The encouraging performance bodes well for the summer, with the premiers set to face Papanui at Papanui Domain on Saturday at 3.00pm as they make their long awaited Canterbury Premier Championship debut.
Softball in Kaiapoi is now the largest it has ever been since its re-invigoration 10 years ago, boasting 20 teams this season.
Senior softball at Kaiapoi remains strong with a record seven senior teams entering the Canterbury club competition for new 2016-2017 season, all starting on Saturday.
As well as the premier women, there are premier reserve and B women’s sides, C and D grade men’s teams and two mixed teams.
The club’s junior ranks are also on track to enter a record 12 teams, with a possible 13th if they can find more under 13 girls, starting at the end of the holidays.
It is a strong position to be walking into for incoming club president Scott Fitzgerald, and outgoing president Wayne Richardson said his replacement is learning the demands of the role quickly.
‘‘Scott comes to us with very strong business acumen and brings a new level of governance to the club,’’ Richardson said.