Promising catcher Campbell Gaunt starred as Giants notched a comfortable win and a narrow loss in their double header men's softball matches at Fraser Park, Avalon on Saturday. Gaunt normally plays at catcher for the Giants under-18 side but with their premier team losing their first string player in that crucialrole, Jason O'Leary, with injury he was given his chance in the big time, and literally grabbed it with both hands. Against Hutt Valley Marist in a Hutt Valley premier division match Gaunt's smooth partnership with pitcher Justin Karaitiana played a big part in his team's convincing 4-0 success. Karaitiana always had the "wood" on the HVM batting line-up with Gaunt's sharpness behind the plate providing excellent support. Leading the way with the bat for Giants was Ryan Shannahan while Karaitiana also made an impact in that department. Coach Tony Nixon labelled the victory as a "good solid effort" with HVM never getting themselves into a position from where they could seriously challenge his side. Giants's second encounter was an Inter-City series match against defending champions Porirua and while their 2-1 loss represented Giants's first loss in five games in that competition it was a cracker of a game which could have gone either way. Gaunt was again at catcher here with Ritchie Clarke on the pitching mound and they coped magnificently against the powerful Porirua batting order spearheaded by the Makea brothers, Fabian and Thomas. Giants actually held a 1-0 lead at the end of the first innings with Porirua levelling things up in the third innings and then scoring what was to be the winning run in the bottom of the sixth. Nixon said the game was "very tense" with neither side able to gain any sort of ascendancy over the other. "It was a real cliff hanger, it could have gone either way, " he said. "They (Porirua) are a top side but we gave every bit as good as we received. It was a huge effort on our part." Pitching for Porirua was Black Sox Tane Richardson and he was generally able to keep the Giants's batters under wraps although Justin Karaitiana was again a force to be reckoned with in that area of the game.
