Giants Blue locked in a home semifinal in Intercity Premier Two with a clinical 4–1 win over Wainuiomata on Saturday.
Little separated the sides at South Park, but the Blues made the most of their limited chances with the bat. In the field, player-coach Justin ‘Chunky’ Karaitiana kept the Wainui batters in check with his accurate pitching, giving up few safe hits, while good ground fielding restricted the Wainui batters.
In a weird quirk of the draw, the Blues are likely to meet Poneke-Kilbirnie, who they beat in the previous weekend’s preliminary final, in this Saturday’s semifinals.
Good batting saw Giants Red run away with a 13–3 win over Johnsonville Swingers in four innings at Alex Moore Park to finish top of the premier three standings after the round-robin.
A huge automatic home run to Willie Waitere and an almost-first home run to Thomas Kawana were the highlights for the Reds.
Team member Chris Feary said Kawana, one of the team’s younger players, was a standout and was unlucky not to score a home run with the ball landing on the fence. Kawana batted 750 and also impressed in the outfield, taking one outstanding catch in his non-gloved hand.
Feary said while the win was based around good batting, pitcher Tony Nixon was in imperative form and gave the opposition batters little to hit.
The Reds are likely to play Dodgers White in Saturday’s semifinal.
The Giants women slumped to their second loss of the Hutt Valley Premier Three competition, going down 5–1 to unbeaten leaders Te Aroha at South Park.
Giants impressed in the field, but were let down when batting and were unable to create enough chances.
Catcher Ashlee Edmonds was the player of the day with a safe hit and good work behind the plate.
