Auckland regional league finals - NZ

[fastball]

Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2006 21:33:45 +1300 
From: Vance <vance(at)vanf-graphics.co.nz> 
Subject: Auckland regional league finals 



   If the regional league finals were between the top four sides
only, Saturday’s play would have been intriguing, with some saying
a conspiracy was afoot.
   But those who witnessed the slaughter of national champion
Ramblers by the recently-embattled Northcote know that the 14-7
score line was no plot to let any other side win the final game
of the round-robin.
   Thomas Cameron’s face showed that after he was replaced after
Northcote’s sensational second turn.
   But Ramblers had sneaked ahead 2-0 in the second when Lyndon
Andrew hit to the fence, over Casey Eden’s head, and the outfielder
almost snared the ball. But his effort helped the shot over and
Scott O’Neale, who hit a fine double, scored also.
   Cameron’s day went wrong when he walked Casey Eden and Todd
Wilson, then allowed four successive singles, each snarling past
the fielders, to score three Northcote runs. Derrek Coleman,
who took an increasingly starring part in the win, Michael Boaler,
Aaron Collier and Dean Wallace hit the singles, one batter went
out, before Brad Rona was walked deliberately, leaving the bases
loaded.
   Coach Neil Morrison, with Ramblers concentrating on stopping
the next hitter, called for a bunt from the visiting American
Luis Joglar. The big catcher obliged with a perfectly placed
one, tantalisingly out of reach of catcher Lyndon Andrew. It
was a killer move which took the score to 5-0.
   Eden hit safely as Northcote seemingly could do no wrong,
Wilson struck out and then Coleman appeared for the second time
in a 14-batter inning. He lofted a huge homer over centre field
to continue his recent big batting to score three and it was
10-0.
   Ramblers, as national champion sides should, hit back immediately
with two runs when Nathan Nukunuku swung with lightning speed,
hitting over centre field with a horizontal drive, similar to
his recent fine shots.
   The fourth passed with no runs for either side and it seemed
that the game would become ordinary again. John Hireme took over
the Ramblers’ pitching and tamed the batters in the third and
for two outs in the fourth while Andrew languished on third after
a solid centre field single in Ramblers’ fourth against relief
pitcher Jimmy Grego.
   But Northcote’s third batter in the fourth was Coleman, who
has had a golden run in 2006, directly opposite to his pitching
success. He hit the ball so far that the clubrooms seemed in
danger to edge Northcote further ahead.
   Lawrence Naera started the fifth with a smart single to left
and Nukunuku was walked to start Ramblers’ fight back. But Hale,
usually the man who threatens the fences, had the third of his
four tepid infield outs before Scott O’Neale slammed his home
run to make the margin 11-7, making a recovery possible.
   Hireme survived the fifth, aided by a great outfield catch
by Bobbie King, right on the right field fence to retire Wallace.
   Rona returned to the pitching job in the sixth and was threatened
by hits to King and Nukunuku but there was no addition to the
Ramblers’ score.
   Then Rona, with time running out, made sure of the result
with a powerful home run over right field. Leon Lambert won a
walk from Hireme and up came former Cardinals’ man Wilson who
hit his home run, the seventh of the match, to put Northcote
14-7 ahead before umpire Andrew Laird ended the game on the time
limit.
   It was hardly the result Ramblers wanted for the end of the
round-robin, having suffered only one previous defeat, 0-1 against
Marist in the first round. It was also not a confidence booster
for the Auckland final against Metro on Sunday next, or for the
final of the regional league where the team has been seeded through
the first play-off day.
   In the “battle” for minor placings, Metro was secure in second.
Northcote, despite Waitakere Bears’ final mid-week game against
Otahuhu, is third. Bears is likely to finish on the same points’
total but has a run deficit which reflects some odd results during
the season. Northcote’s erratic form at least kept the side’s
runs-for in credit.
   Bears beat Papatoetoe 13-3 but the South Auckland side, with
a major jubilee looming next year, at least finished with a win,
over Otahuhu, one of the improving sides of the year. Papatoetoe
won 3-1.
   Marist, always in the top echelon over the past twenty years,
dropped out of the top four to finish behind Howick, a team which
caused anger at Northcote by winning a non-match by default after
Auckland’s worst Saturday traffic snarl-up ever when cars were
blocked right around the Manukau Harbour, threatening all activities.
   There were many technicalities discussed at Northcote’s appeal
against Howick’s default win but they were rejected. Anyone who
was involved in the chaos, as I was, but managed to find the
motorway because I was heading into the mess, would probably
have said, “forget about it and play another day”. 
   It depended where you lived that day, and where you were going.
   No one doubted the decision to award the Marist v Metro game
to Marist, especially when the side was 12-0 ahead after four
turns, but there was the continuing anomaly of the score of a
forfeited game. 
   When umpire Glen Nalepa said that he was sick of the personal
abuse and called the game off, Marist had a fine lead. The forfeit
cut that to the regulation 7-0, which could have made a difference
if runs for and against had mattered. The rules should not handicap
the side leading at the time or else the bush lawyers could have
a field day, as they so often do in the rule-dominated sport.
   For example, Smart Town is trailing 10-0 in the fourth, knowing
that a 7-0 loss will give it a play-off spot. Someone starts
a melee, or an abuse session, and the whole team joins in. The
umpire calls the game off and Smart Town makes the finals. All
you need to know is the maths, as they say.
   The manipulation of the time limit all over town, from the
juniors to the seniors, is an example of rule use. That’s why
they have the infield fly rule, because the old-timers would
drop a simple catch and work the triple play.
   But there is still one rule which handicaps the innocent.
The pitcher throws one at the batter’s head and, in getting out
of the way, the ball hits the bat. It is a foul, or sometimes
even worse, a simple put-out, pitcher to first base. If the bat
is not swung then it should not be a foul, or a hit, in this
circumstance.
   This situation has existed for sixty years and still someone
has not eliminated the anomaly. Come on Wayne Saunders, make
a move.
   Sermon over, the Waitakere Bears’ women had a set-back but
only a minor one when an incomplete game against league leader
Marist was completed, in a time turned back scenario, where the
two teams, plus the same scorer and umpire, went back to a point
in the game and re-started.
   Marist won 5-0, setting Bears a target for the Auckland final,
the first contested by the ambitious club. With the men in the
top four, and the women having an excellent second half of the
season, the on-field situation has come some way to balancing
the fire which razed the clubrooms mid-season.
   We need Bears to succeed, as we do Otahuhu, Glenora, Howick
and Papatoetoe. It has been the best thing in recent years, having
local teams doing well.
   With this on-field joy to live with, perhaps the talk of a
western league will disappear into the ether it came from. North
Harbour and Counties were once part of Auckland softball and
neither can claim much progress, apart from Harbour’s juniors
and a fine Council-controlled ground.
   Counties almost disappeared and Harbour still has only one
major level club, men and women.
   The western league was a no-go even back in the sixties when
United called for a split when Norana Park started operating.
   The world of sport has changed. There are so many options
for young people, and easier, cheaper sports. There is no room
for western, eastern, southern and northern organisations, only
localised junior play to save trekking across town each Saturday.
Leave that for the elite leagues, if necessary.


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

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

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