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EYES UP: Black Sox captain Nathan Nukunuku bats during his sides victory over Samoa in the Oceania men's series in Albany.
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  PLUS Paul Conroy Photography
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The Black Sox's new breed of batting stars hammered home runs to inflict a pyschological blow over Australia tonight in the Oceania softball series.
Aucklander Thomas Enoka blasted his second home run of the day in the 6-0 rout at Rosedale Park after Jerome Raemaki started the hit parade with a third inning king hit.
Black Sox coach Mark Sorenson was pleased with the victory over the arch rivals but he would be mindful that the Kiwis will face two tougher encounters against Australia tomorrow.
The Kiwis, who also beat Samoa 4-1, need just one more win to guarantee a berth at the 2015 world championships in Canada.
Australia's coaching staff played a cat-and-mouse game by resting their two top pitchers Adam Folkard and Andrew Kirkpatrick in favour of three relative rookies.
"I think we'll see them before the end of the weekend," Sorenson quipped.
The Kiwis collected seven safe hits to one by Australia, who did not help their cause by committing three fielding errors. Captain Nathan Nukunuku had two hits for the Black Sox.
"I wasn't overly happy after the Samoa game [despite three automatic home runs], but once we settled in and started to accumulate against Australia, there was a better spread of runs.
"We don't just want to rely on home runs, we want to be able to manufacture runs too."
Black Sox starting pitcher Nik Hayes took a little while to find his spots but managed to dig himself out of some early-innings pressure situations with some clutch strikeouts.
But experienced catcher Stephen Ratu helped Hayes focus and the Hutt Valley hurler finished with 12 strikeouts while conceding just one hit and four walks.
Sorenson said Hayes "threw a great game" once he settled down.
The transtasman tussle was typically tight until Raemaki smashed his automatic home run.
The 20-year-old Wellington infielder belied his position at the bottom of the batting order with his second hit of the tournament. He slammed a Joel Goodall groove ball that hung invitingly over the middle of the plate.Â
Captain Nathan Nukunuku showed his pressure batting poise with a line drive up the middle off Australian reliever Harri Peters to score Tyson Byrne.Â
Nukunuku scooted home for New Zealand's third run when the Australian infield crumbled under pressure from Donny Hale's hit to third base.
The Black Sox's blazing bats carried them to a 4-1 win over Samoa with three automatic home runs.
There was never any doubt about Thomas Enoka and Tyron Bartorillo's early-innings blasts _ Enoka's flew over the centrefield fence on to the North Harbour Softball clubrooms roof.
But debutant Joel Evans' fifth inning solo shot was disputed by the Samoan fielders, who claimed to no avail the ball had flown the wrong side of the foul pole.
The Black Sox suffered a pre-game blow with top pitcher Jeremy Manley ruled out of the tournament with injury.
Sorenson brought Manley over from his United States base to get him back int he groove. He had planned to give Manley, who pitched the Black Sox to the 2013 world title, limited game time because he was out of season, but was forced to withdraw him at the 11th hour.
Auckland's Bayley Pearson-Hoani was drafted in and was given the ball to pitch the first game.
Folkard hurled a no-hitter as Australia opened the Oceania softball series with a mercy rule 7-0 over Samoa.
The  tall pitcher from Canberra _ rated as the world's best over the past five years _  struck out five Samoan hitters.
Australia accumulated eight safe hits off Anderson and reliever Joel Harris. Right fielder Ryan Sinclair, first baseman Andrew Kirkpatrick and Shaun Goffer each had two hits from three at-bats.
First day results:Â Australia 7 Samoa 0 (6 innings). New Zealand 4 Samoa 1. New Zealand 6 Australia 0. Wins: NZ 2, Australia 1, Samoa 0.
 - Stuff
