Tigers thump two homers
Pitcher Ben Watts and outfielder Reilly Makea blasted huge home runs as the Papanui Tigers preserved their lead in the Canterbury men’s softball premiership.
Watts, who will spearhead the Canterbury Red Sox attack at the National Fastpitch Championships, sent a towering hit into orbit over leftfield on the open diamond at Papanui Domain to set up a 4-1 win over Albion on Saturday.
Makea, the New Zealand Junior Black Sox international, made the game safe by drilling the ball through the leftfield gap.
Watts kept the Albion hitters at bay until handing over to allow Ethan Johnston to close out the final inning ahead of his pending departure to a softball coaching job in Indonesia.
Albion’s Josh Hartwig started well on the mound, taking some clutch strikeouts, Papanui profited from a couple of untimely fielding errors.
The PCU Devils hammered the Halswell Hornets 7-0 at Halswell Domain.
PCU had a stranglehold on the game from the first inning when Curtis Dove, Josh Thomson, Ihaka Davis and Bowen Annandale scored.
Davis hit an in-the-park open diamond home run in the fourth inning and Louis Peters repeated the feat in the fifth.
Third baseman Peters batted 1.000 as PCU out-hit Halswell 11-4.
American imports Allyne Clark and Elizabeth Snow put on a batting clinic in a women’s premiership game at Papanui Domain.
Clark led the PCU Angels’ hit parade in a 9-2 win over Papanui by batting 1.000 at the top of the order.
The Kansas catcher had a single, a triple and a double and drove in several runs.
Snow, a graduate of the University of Albany in New York State, also batted 1.000 for Papanui with a single, a double and a home run.
Leah Stockford and Olivia King also had two hits for Papanui.
Alex King clouted a two-run home run in Halswell’s 6-3 victory over Kaiapoi at Halswell Domain.
Lucy McIntyre belted two doubles for Halswell and Nicole Baxter-Warren supplied a pair of singles.
Jasmine Smith walloped a home run for Kaiapoi with Christina Paul contributing a triple and Lauren Sutherland a double.
Club softball resumes in midJanuary.