march2013

NZ softball great on hand to watch classic

March 6, 2013

Auckland, NZ

 

ORIGINAL STORY by Tony Smith in Auckland

 

Dave Sorenson played in one of the greatest games in New Zealand softball and witnessed another this week. And the contrast couldn't have been starker. 

    Sorenson and fellow teammates from New Zealand's first gold medal squad were honoured in an on-diamond parade before the dramatic batting fireworks in the Black Sox' loss to Canada at Albany on Monday night. 

    The Hutt Valley stalwart captained New Zealand in 1976 and featured in a 20-inning marathon match against the United States, a veritable pitching clinic between the world's two premier practitioners - New Zealand's right-hander Kevin Herlihy and American southpaw Ty Stofflet. 

    It was, quite possibly, the greatest personal duel within a team sport context in New Zealand sporting history. 

    Both men threw all 20 innings, with Stofflet striking out and dismissing 56 consecutive batters. Only one Kiwi made base - after he was hit by a pitch. 

    Herlihy gave up a handful of hits, including one to Stofflet, who drove in the winning run in the 20th inning. 

    Oh how times have changed at the ball yard. 

    The Black Sox-Canada clash was a classic for entirely different reasons. The slugfest featured 26 hits - 17 to the Canadians and nine by the Kiwis - and five automatic home runs. 

    Stofflet and Herlihy hurled close to three regulation seven innings games in one encounter. There was no question of bringing on reinforcements to relieve tiring arms. 

    The Black Sox and Canada used four pitchers each in eight innings on Monday. 

    Sorenson said the game, won by 9-7 by Canada, showed how much softball had changed since '76. 

    "The batting has certainly come a long way, and it's fair to say the pitching has gone back,'' said the former first baseman who was also an elite coach.. 

    "But the game is all about hitting. I'm sure nobody who watched the game here would have been disappointed, apart from with the result.'' 

    Sorenson doubted whether the Black Sox would ever have conceded 17 hits in a game before. The late, great Herlihy, who took 84 strikeouts at the 1972 world series, would hardly have given up 17 hits in a tournament. 

    Sorenson's son Mark, who won four world championship titles between 1984 and 2004, was at Albany as the tournament ambassador. 

    "I was with some corporate guests, who didn't know a lot about the game but they loved it, it was pure theatre right to the last out [of the seventh inning] when Donny Hale hit his moon shot [a two-run automatic home run into the centrefield bleachers to take the game into extra innings]''. 

    That was something New Zealand fans didn't see a lot of in Sorenson senior's day. 

    "We went on four overseas tours before we hit an automatic [home run],'' he said. "At that time, there were no [outfield] fences here, so we were taught to hit through the ball and get one-base or two-base hits. It wasn't till '76 [at the world series] that we had our first fences and gradually the hitting style changed and we started hitting home runs.'' 

    Today's hitters use titanium bats and hit lively, coloured softballs which are easier to see than the white ball used exclusively in Sorenson senior's era. 

    But he says the hitters now benefit from playing overseas where "they get used to adjusting to the different pitchers. We were good in our time against our own pitchers but when you went elsewhere, it took time to adjust.'' 

    Both Sorensons had some concerns about the Kiwi pitching processes. 

    Mark Sorenson, a champion catcher with an ability to detect rival hitters' weaknesses, would like to see the Black Sox hurlers throwing more change-up pitches [slower deliveries aimed at upsetting the batter's rhythm]. 

    "The change-up is such a critical weapon. It means that [batters] can't sit on one speed and makes your quicker pitches look faster.'' 

    Father Dave doesn't think pitching coach Chubb Tangaroa should be "taking the pitchers out so quickly''. 

    "Chubb was a great pitcher in his day who liked to work his way out of a hole. 

    "He should give his pitchers bit more leeway. 

    "We've been taking guys out in the first inning, which limits your choices later in the game

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