Kiwi team open tour with two wins
July 2, 2006
Sydney, AU
Kiwi team open tour with two winsSunday July 2nd 2006
The New Zealand Under 19 Men’s Development team have opened theirAustralian tour today with two good wins in the Friendship Series at NewSouth Wales Softball Park, Sydney.
While the New Zealand team may not have played any softball in the lastthree months that didn’t stop them from tasting success today as firstthey defeated Australia Gold 4-3 and then backed that up with a 2-1 winover New South Wales Country.
Against Australia Gold the Kiwi team always had the lead, after scoringthe opening run of the game in the second innings they then added anothertwo in the third inning and one more in the sixth. Australia Gold stagedtheir fight back late in the game picking up two runs in the sixth inningand one more in the seventh.
For the New Zealand team James Pointon of Wellington started the game onthe mound and pitched the opening five innings facing 17 batters andtaking four strikeouts while giving up four walks and one hit. HawkesBay’s Tamihana Hokianga came into the game as relief pitcher for NewZealand in the sixth inning and faced 12 batters, he gave up two walks,two hits and three runs while taking four strikeouts.
The stand out performer with the bat for New Zealand was Jamie Love fromAuckland who picked up two hits in the game including a home run fromthree at bats.
In the second game of the day New Zealand were made to fight hard fortheir 2-1 victory over NSW Country with the winning run of the gamecoming in the bottom of the final inning.
New Zealand opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning whenBen Enoka of Auckland scored on a wild pitch after originally getting onbase via a hit. NSW Country levelled in the scores in the third inningbefore the Kiwis struck the decisive blow in the fifth inning.
New Zealand scored the winning run in the fifth and final inning whenMatthew Baxter from Canterbury crossed home plate on a wild pitch aftergetting on base with a walk. With a time limit in place the game wasrestricted to five innings.
On the mound for New Zealand David McKenzie of Counties Manukau wasstrong as he faced 16 batters and gave up just two hits and one walkwhile taking seven strikeouts. Jamie Love came into the game in the fifthinning to pitch the final innings for New Zealand and faced four batterstaking two strikeouts while giving up one walk.
The Friendship Series continues tomorrow for New Zealand as they take onAustralia Green at 11am and Titans at 1pm.
