By TONY SMITH
The Press
Designated hitter Donny Hale joined an elite group when he clubbed a bases-loaded grand slam home run in the Black Sox’s world softball championships demolition of Denmark in Saskatoon.
Among the men mobbing Hale after his huge hit in the third inning was Black Sox assistant-coach Dave Workman, who slugged a grand slam homer in the same Canadian city 21 years ago.
“Dave was quick to tell Donny he’s now part of an elite club,” Black Sox pitching coach Jim Wana quipped after the 16-0 four-innings thumping.
Softball statisticians flicked through the record books last night to discover Hale was only the sixth New Zealander to hit a grand slam at a world championships.
Cliff Joseph was the first, against Hong Kong in 1984. Workman (versus Cuba) and Dave Wall (against the United States) did double damage in 1988, as did captain Jarrad Martin (South Africa) and Thomas Makea (Venezuela) in Christchurch in 2004.
Hale, who brought home Nathan Nukunuku, Travis Wilson and Martin yesterday, celebrated his feat by recording a perfect 1.000 batting average against the Danes, with three hits from three turns at bat.
It was Hale’s second home run of the tournament, and he finished the game with five RBIs (runs batted in).
Wilson whacked his fourth home run in Saskatoon and could have had a grand slam himself but two runners scored on the previous delivery, a wild pitch. The Black Sox collected 12 safe hits, with Hale backed by top-order men Makea and Nukunuku, who had two hits from three plate appearances. Makea also clouted a homer.
Denmark took just one safe hit off Black Sox pitcher Jeremy Manley.
However, pitching coach Wana was equally pleased that Manley appeared to be over the illegal pitching problem that had troubled him in the series.
Manley threw 56 pitches and was only called illegal once for an apparent breach of the rule requiring hurlers to hold the ball in the glove for two seconds before pitching.
Wana said the New Zealanders had worked hard to ensure they pitched legally but he felt the umpires were being “a little inconsistent” with some of their rulings.
However, he said “all teams are getting called, it’s not just us”.
Wana said New Zealand had such a strong hitting lineup that the umpiring crackdown on opposition pitching “was helping us more than it’s helping anyone else”.
The Black Sox have now scored 63 runs in five games and amassed 56 safe hits, including 15 home runs at an average of three per game.
Wilson has four and Hale, Makea, Nukunuku, Martin and outfielder Gareth Cook two each. Makea leads the batting averages with six hits from nine at-bats for a .667 average, followed by Wilson and Brad Rona (8/13 .615), Hale (7/13 .538), Nukunuku (8/16 .500) and Martin (6/14 .429). Wilson heads the RBIs stakes with 10, followed by Hale and Martin on nine with a gap to Rona and Makea on five.
The Black Sox, which play Mexico today in Pool A, and Canada, which squeezed out Venezuela 5-4 yesterday in Pool B, are the unbeaten teams.