Gordon Wilmshurst hit an automatic home run in Giants big win. PHOTO/FILE
CHRIS COGDALE
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Giants scored the perfect five from five on Saturday, including the Premier Two men’s team winning their first match in their Intercity Championship.
Both women’s teams and the two age-group teams also recorded comfortable victories.
The Premier Two team’s game against Island Bay was originally scheduled to be a Giants “home game” on the Marist skin diamond at Fraser Park, but it was later transferred to South Park, giving Giants their first home fixture since winning promotion from Premier Three prior to Christmas.
Team member and club president Chris Feary explained that after the retirement of Trevor Stratford as an umpire there were no official umpires in Wairarapa.
“What Intercity were doing was making Marist skin our home ground, and there were several injuries from playing on that diamond, and to top it off because it was our home diamond, we had to umpire our home games,” he said.
“We said to them this is rubbish really, and if we’ve got to umpire our own games at Lower Hutt, we may as well just umpire them here in Masterton.”
“So, we reached out to Island Bay and they came back said they would be more than happy to come up to South Park.”
Saturday’s encounter was tight until the top of the fourth inning, when the home side batters hit their straps.
An automatic home run to Gordon Wilmshurst, and good hits finding gaps in the field, had Giants build a handy lead.
That put the pressure back on Island Bay, who had to start swinging, but they were no match for pitcher Tony Nixon, and combined with good defensive fielding, Giants closed out the game 7-0 in five innings.
Giants Blue easily won their Hutt Valley Major B Women’s top-four clash 21-6 over bitter rivals Stokes Valley, while Giants Red started their bottom four championship with an 11-5 win over Saints.
Both age group sides also had comfortable wins. The Under-15s won their clash with Totara Park Gold by 11 runs, and the Under-13s beat Saints Whero 14-10.
