Late drama as Matua Ma secure women’s crown
Matua Ma have claimed the Manawatū senior women’s club softball title in only their third season as a team.
The premier women’s semifinals and final were played at Colquhoun Park in Palmerston North on Saturday ahead of the women’s interclub tournament in Christchurch.
A Manawatū team has gained entry as Softball New Zealand allowed them to put together a representative team to enter the interclub competition.
Matua Ma beat the Dodgers 11-10 in an exciting final, as both teams pushed to pull ahead.
The Dodgers led by three runs at the bottom of the seventh inning.
Matua Ma then managed to score two runs and, with runners on second and third bases, up stepped Shiloh Cunningham.
She smacked a three-bagger over the right fielder’s head and both runners on base scored, putting the team ahead 11-10 at the end of the game.
Earlier, Matua Ma beat Levin United 15-8 in the semifinal.
The Dodgers beat Kingswood Anahera in the other semifinal.
In the men’s competition, a big-hitting Blue Sox team outclassed the Huia Chiefs 7-0 on Thursday night.
Blue Sox pitcher Bryan Taiaroa had a no-hitter. He struck out 16 Chiefs batters.
The game highlight was an over-thehome run by the Blue Sox’s Jason Kensington. Two games were played on Saturday in the rain.
The Linton Sentinels dealt out an 11-1 win to a heavily depleted Blue Sox team, who had four players away with the Manawatū men’s Evergreens team.
The Blue Sox only recorded two hits. Sentinels pitcher Caleb White-Hodge struck out seven of the 14 batters he faced.
Linton’s top batter was Brock Coulbeck, who had two hits from three turns at bat, including an in-the-park home run. In the second game, the Huia Chiefs beat the Dodgers 6-5. The Dodgers got off to a good start, scoring four runs in the second inning. Huia replied with two.
Huia scored in the next two inning, while Dodgers could only add one more, thanks to a lovely in-the-park home run by Whatu Kiriona.
Huia edged ahead and the score was all tied up in the fifth.
The Dodgers couldn’t add to their score, but the Chiefs scored one run at the bottom of the seventh to take the win.