Black Sox make clean sweep of series

[Al Doran]

Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2005 16:25:17 +1300
From: Vance <vance(at)vanf-graphics.co.nz>
Subject: Black Sox make clean sweep of series




Black Sox make clean sweep of series
Sunday December 4th 2005

The world champion New Zealand Community Trust Black Sox have completed a 
4-0 clean sweep of their series against Samoa today with two more wins at 
Rosedale Park, North Harbour.

With bat in hand the Black Sox have been impressive this weekend collecting 
37 runs across the four games while conceding only eight.

In game four of the series this afternoon the Black Sox were relentless as 
they defeated Samoa 11-0 in five innings scoring runs consistently.

The Black Sox scored five runs in their first at bat and then added two 
more in the second inning, another two in the third and two more in the 
fifth to close out the game.

Features of the hitting included a big home run over the centre field fence 
by Stacy McLean while Thomas Makea, Patrick Shannon and Gus Leger all 
picked up two hits in the game.

While the Black Sox hitters were relentless pitcher Marty Grant was just as 
strong on the mound as he denied the Samoan batters any chances. Grant 
faced 23 batters taking eight strikeouts while giving up five hits and one 
walk.

The pitching story was not as positive for the Samoans as they couldn’t 
contain the power hitting of the Black Sox. Penese Iosefo started the game 
on the mound for Samoa and faced just six batters giving up four hits and 
five runs.

David Gollan replaced Iosefo on the mound in the first inning and he faced 
26 batters giving up five hits, three walks and six runs.

In the first game of the day today the Black Sox were just as convincing 
winning 7-1 with a feature of that game being the home run hitting of the 
Kiwis. The Black Sox hit five home runs in the game with Travis Wilson the 
star with two.

Today’s victories come on the back of two earlier wins over the Samoans at 
Norana Avenue Ballpark, Auckland yesterday.

Looking back on the four match series Black Sox coach Eddie Kohlhase is a 
happy man but is under no illusions about the work their still is to do.

“The guys showed outstanding offensive power the whole weekend. We scored a 
lot of runs and defended well against a pretty gritty and determined Samoan 
side. The guys were most disappointed with the eight runs that we gave away 
in the series. The task for us now is to work on our defence and make that 
stronger to match the offensive power this team has,” said Kohlhase.

Looking at stand out players Kohlhase singled out returning Black Sox 
infielder Travis Wilson who proved lethal with the bat all weekend while 
also playing well defensively at second base.

“Travis hit five home runs and they were big home runs, and he played 
really well defensively in the field, he was a huge factor for this team.”

With a 4-0 clean sweep against Samoa Kohlhase and his selection panel are 
now looking ahead to the Commonwealth Cup to be played in Melbourne in late 
January.

Kohlhase will name his squad for that series on December 19th with the 
coach suggesting there could be a number of changes to the squad as the 
selection panel look to give players from the wider Black Sox training 
squad a chance to show what they can do.

New Zealand Community Trust Black Sox v Samoa Series results:
Game 1 – NZCT Black Sox 13 Samoa 2 (five innings).
Game 2 – NZCT Black Sox 6 Samoa 5.
Game 3 – NZCT Black Sox 7 Samoa 1
Game 4 – NZCT Black Sox 11 Samoa 0 (five innings)

By SNZ Media Liaison: Kelly Mitchell
*  mailto:kelly.mitchell(at)xtra.co.nz

http://www.softball.org.nz/
* mailto:snz(at)softball.org.nz


Cheers Vance
Softball New Zealand web master.
*   mailto:vance(at)vanf-graphics.co.nz

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