Tauranga Classic 2006
October 15, 2006
Carlton reserve. Western Bay of Plenty, NZ
Tauranga Classic
14-15th October 2006
Tauranga Classic 2006, at Carlton reserve. Western Bay of Plenty senior softball's season-opening invitation tournament, the Tauranga 2006Classic, featured an all-Auckland final on Sunday 8th October. Ramblersin the final had a decisive 7-0 win over Auckland United.
Ramblers took a 2-0 lead in the first innings and steadly added a run ortwo each subsequent innings, with the quality of their pitching andfeilding such that United seldom got beyond first base. In the earlystages of the game Ramblers looked the likely winner, despite United'ssolid tournament. Ramblers were tight in the field and agressive at bat,helped by United's fumbling in the out-field.
Two Auckland teams in the final wasn't unexpected as both teams had asprinkling of representative players and had won all their previoustournament games, with Ramblers runnersup last year.
Among the representative players in the teams, Ramblers included Blacksox pitcher Thomas Cameron, in his 20th season, catcher Lyndon Andrewsand Nathan Nukunuku at shortstop.
United had Samoan representatives Heini Shannon (pitcher) and TravisAllen at shortstop. Protecting first base was former New Zealand under 19representative Issac Fletcher.
Nuknuku won player of the tournament as Ramblers won every one of theirmatches in the tournment. In their semi-final they downed Raiders(Rotorua) 10-2 while early games produced wins over Marlinz (Hamilton)17-6, Marist/ Magic (Rotorua) 8-3 and Waitakere Bears (Auckland) 13-2United beat Marist/Magic 7-0 to reach the final, with wins over raiders20-5 and top Western Bay side Blockbusters 15-0.
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Cheers Vance
Softball New Zealand web master.
* Email:vanf@ihug.co.nz