Champion Dodgers slight favourites to win final against Cardinals

DODGERS face a stiff challenge today as they look to defend their club softball title.

They will meet this season’s other dominant team, Cardinals, at Ellis Park, as they play off for the Success Cup.

After having met six times this season, with wins going both ways, the sides will be familiar

with each other.

While Dodgers may enter as slight favourites, having finished top of the table, they are not taking anything for granted.

‘‘Yeah we’re confident, but you’ve always got to be wary of Cardinals,’’ playercoach Matt Watts said.

‘‘They’ve got some good young players, [pitcher] Mitchell Finnie is always a threat.

‘‘But if we stick to our guns, do our jobs and don’t let it get away from ourselves we should come away with the win.’’

The side has a strong pitching staff, including Otago players Jacob Wedlock and Nelson Yorsten.

It also has plenty of firepower in a batting lineup which has racked up some high scores this season.

Hoani IvaKeen and Logan Herbert will be among the key figures there.

Cardinals also have a strong batting lineup, although whether they pull everything together on the day will have a large bearing on the outcome.

‘‘We need to score runs against Dodgers to beat them, which is a pretty stock standard thing to say, but they will score runs, so we need to score runs,’’ Cardinals coach Grant Phillips said.

‘‘On our day our batting lineup can do that, but we haven’t had many of those days this season.

‘‘We’ve won games, but we probably haven’t batted like we should this season.’’

Likewise being tidy in the field and limiting errors would be important.

While stopping Dodgers scoring would be tough, Phillips said Cardinals would aim to restrict runs as much as possible.

Finnie would be key and Phillips was confident he could deliver a strong performance in the pitching circle.

He was one of three players in the team to play for Otago earlier this summer — the others being Ben Moody and Will Hewett who would be among Cardinals’ other key players.

The game begins at 4.30pm, and prize giving will take place straight afterwards.