The Giants’ Mike Kawana hits a home run against the Demons on Saturday. PHOTO/JADE CVETKOV
SOFTBALL
ELI HILL
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A nail-biting tiebreaker had the Giants President’s team lifting the Kuripuni Tavern Anniversary Trophy once more.
The final match of the weekend-long tournament had the Giants go up against Hutt Valley’s Railways team at the Giant’s home ground, South Park.
The game, beginning at 3.30pm, was tied up 2-2 after the regulation seven innings.
Play then moved into an eighth innings tie-breaker with the Giant’s Tony Nixon starting as a runner on the second base.
Giant’s batsman Mark Fricker hit an automatic home run to get both runners across home base, giving the Giants a 4-2 lead.
At the bottom of the eighth innings, pitcher Nixon shut Railways’ batters out, to give the home team a 4-2 victory.
The Giants had looked strong throughout the tournament beating other Hutt-based teams, the Demons 11-1 in the first game, and the Cardinals 4-0.
Before heading into the final the Giants beat Totora Park 12-0 with Nixon taking seven strike-outs.
The Giants have now won the tournament for eight years consecutively and coach Russell Kawana said the team would be back to defend their title.
“It’d be nice to go for nine . . . maybe we could even go for the world title.”
Pitcher Tony Nixon said the final match was a great battle.
“They had a good hitting line-up and we had a good hitting line-up as well . . . it was like playing a prem 1 game, we’re up one-nil, then down one, then go into a tiebreaker.
“It was a good all-round team effort. We’re not young but we enjoy the game.”
The Giants’ squad was: Tony Nixon, Mark Fricker, Russell Kawana, Daniel Ranger, Chris Feary, Terry Waitere, Matt Kawana, Willie Waitere, Robbie Bull, Brett Lawrence, Karl Waata and Bryan Hourigan.
