Softball: Saints go marching in on finals day

Saints batter Jesse Little, left, and Fast Pitch catcher and player-coach Te Rangi Chadwick await the outcome of a possible double play during the Hawke's Bay premier men's softball competition's post-Christmas final on Saturday night. Photo/Paul Taylor

Saints Softball Club stalwart Ken Price put his club's domination of Hawke's Bay's post-Christmas competition finals day on Saturday down to one word ... "family".

"We've put a hell of a lot of work into fostering family involvement in the club and promoting our youth through the grades ... today we benefited from that approach," Price told the crowd at Softball Hawke's Bay's senior prizegiving at Akina Park, Hastings, on Saturday night after he collected a wheelbarrow of trophies.

Earlier in the day his club's premier men's team had upset pre-Christmas champions Fast Pitch 8-4 in their final, Saints senior B men had walloped Marist 11-2 in their final and Saints under-19 boys thrashed Maraenui Pumas 9-1 in their final.

It was appropriate Saints third baseman Hoani Crawford should capture player-of-the-match honours in the win against Fast Pitch. The son of former New Zealand Maori, Hurricanes, Blues and Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby prop Orcades Crawford, Crawford, 21, started with the Saints club as a 12-year-old and is in his fifth season of premier ball.

His dad, mum Kerri Thompson, a former Hawke's Bay hockey rep, and sisters Arawhiu and Hine, who are both Hawke's Bay softball age-group reps, are always among the spectators at his games.

In miserable wet conditions Crawford thanked his family for their support in style.

He finished the game with two hits from three turns at bat, scampered home on a passed ball to tie the score at 1-all in the bottom of the second inning and in the bottom of the third hit an in-park error-assisted home run that scored three runs to put Saints ahead 5-1.

"Batting is my favourite part of the game but our defence was a big part of our win today. There were a couple of innings when Fast Pitch had loaded bases but we kept them out.

"Family support is huge for me. Because of work I struggle to make trainings but I try not to miss too many games," added Crawford, who works as a chef at The Loading Ramp in Havelock North.

Fast Pitch player-coach and catcher Te Rangi Chadwick smashed an automatic home run over the centre outfield fence in the top of the fourth inning to have his team trailing 5-2. However, when Saints catcher Jacob Zurcher hit an in-park home run with a runner on base and his team ended the inning with an 8-2 lead it was always going to be tough for Fast Pitch to come back.

Saints beat Maraenui Pumas 5-2 in their semifinal and Fast Pitch beat Dodgers 9-6.

White Sox catcher Melanie Gettins, who won MVP awards at the National Fastpitch Championship and at the national women's interclub tournament with her title-winning Dodgers side, won the senior softballer of the year award on Saturday night and Junior Back Sox utility Tiwana Aranui took home the junior player-of-the-year award.