Giants pitcher Ritchie Clarke has first-hand knowledge of the strengths of the Porirua City United side his team will confront in an Inter-City series men's softball match at Hataitai Park, in Wellington, today.
It was just a couple of weekends ago Clarke was a guest pitcher for PCU when they finishedrunner-up at the Doreen Dalton tournament and he was "very impressed" with the depth of their batting.
"They have a number of good hitters, they bat well virtually right down the order," he said, a sentiment supported by PCU's recent inter-club fixture against the powerful Poneke-Kilbirnie squad when they lost but still managed to score as many as eight runs.
Mindful of PCU's capabilities with the bat, Clarke believes Giants will need to fight fire with fire in that department if they are to strike back after the disappointments of last weekend when they lost narrowly to Dodgers and Johnsonville. In each of those games, Giants were in a position to win but poor batting let them down.
"We weren't smart enough, we kept going after the ball when we needed to be more patient and pick the ball to hit," Clarke said. "It seemed like everyone wanted to smash it out of the park and, against quality teams, you can't do that and expect to get a good result."
Clarke expects the lessons from last weekend to have a positive effect on the Giants' performance today and that runs will flow from a PCU pitching staff that he sees as being "very hittable".
"Everything points to it being a high-scoring affair and, yes, we can pull it off," he said.
For the Giants' premier two women's team, today will see them at home at South Park, Masterton, for the first time this season when they play an Inter-City fixture against highly-regarded Saints, a side which the new Giants coach, Karen O'Connor, represented in her playing days. Interestingly, a teammate of O'Connor then was Naomi Shaw, who is now coach of Saints and also in the White Sox national squad. This should be a cracker of a game with little in it.
In away games today, Giants Presidents play Hutt Valley Dodgers, the major B women play Hutt City United, the under-13s meet Totara Park Gold and the under-15s will play Dodgers.
