Giant effort comes up just short

Giants did not manage to repeat their second placing of the previous two years at the 2008 Wanganui Braves men's softball tournament in Wanganui over the weekend & but they came close.
This time they ended up third after losing to Kapiti 2-0 in what was an enthralling semi-final encounter.
It was a player "borrowed" from the powerful Miramar club who spearheaded Kapiti to victory. Pitcher David Gollon gave up only the one safe hit to a Giants team which prides itself on their batting strength.
"He (Gollon) kept putting the ball in the right places and we just couldn't get bat to it," Giants coach Tony Nixon said.
Giants, for their part, also did well in the field with Mark Quinn returning from duty with the Hutt Valley national league side and taking over the pitching role. He conceded just the two runs in an impressive display.
Earlier, Giants had qualified for the semis by winning three of their four pool matches.
First up they were taken to a tie breaker by Tamatea of Hawke's Bay before winning 4-2. Justin Karaitiana, who also had the pitching responsibilities, and Jason O'Leary both struck home runs and Ryan Shannahan had two safe hits.
A 12-0 win over host side Wanganui Braves illustrated the depth in the Giants batting. No home runs were registered but Shannahan, Gordon Wilmshurst and Blair Thompson all hit safely on two occasions. Coach Nixon took an active part in that match, filling the pitching role and showing the value of experience and guile in conceding no runs.
Those two successes meant a Giants win over Royals of Wellington in their third pool match would qualify for them for the semis and they snuck home in a tie breaker by 3-2. Corie Karaitiana slammed a home run there and the ever-reliable Shannahan drove home what was to be the decisive run in Giants's last turn at bat.
With their semi-final spot already guaranteed the pressure was off Giants for the last of their pool games against Poneke-Kilbirnie which they lost 5-3.
Nixon said the Wanganui tournament provided an excellent dress rehearsal for two important matches to be played by Giants at Fraser Park, Petone tomorrow night.
There they will meet Hutt Valley Marist and Hutt Valley Dodgers and two wins will see them strongly placed to earn the top qualifying spot for the playoffs in the Hutt Valley premier league.
With ace pitcher Ritchie Clarke returning to the squad after being rested from the Wanganui Braves tournament to recover from injury Giants will be at full strength and while Nixon isn't under-estimating the ability of either Marist or Dodgers he believes Giants should have the measure off them.
"If we play well we will win, it's as simple as that," he said.
"Potentially we are better than them but that counts for nothing, we have to go out there and prove it."