Auckland teams make flying start

The Auckland men’s and women’s softball teams justified their favourites tags with two early wins at the National Fastpitch Championship softball tournament.

New Zealand White Sox pitcher Jennifer Feret-Brear led the Auckland women to a 3-0 win over champions Hutt Valley in Christchurch yesterday, and former international Katrina Nukunuku was the batting star in a 5-0 victory over Southern Pride.

Black Sox batters were to the fore as the Auckland men slugged 23 runs in their first two games.

They needed just four innings to thrash champions Hutt Valley 10-0 in their opening game at Christchurch’s Mizuno Ballpark yesterday.

They were even more impressive in a 13-1 five innings win over neighbours Counties Manukau Waikato (CMW).

Hutt Valley also tumbled to a 8-5 loss to Challenge Cup international tournaments Japan.

The game was deadlocked at 5-5 until the top of the seventh inning when Japan leftfielder Yusake Morita slammed a threerun home run.

Wellington edged Counties Manukau-Waikato 2-1 in an eight innings tiebreaker and beat Southern Pride, 3-0.

Women’s NFC

Jennifer Feret-Brear dominated the Hutt hitters with 11 strikeouts for two hits – both to her national team captain Lara Andrews.

Brear and fellow past and present White Sox team-mates Ancelle van Molendorff, Kyla Bromhead, Katrina Nukunuku, Zoe Tolhopf had hits for Auckland, as did Meg Glading and Bohemian Quinn.

Nukunuku had two hits and White Sox pitcher Tyla Morrison hurled 10 strikeouts in Auckland’s 5-0 win over Southern Pride.