Giants coach Tony Nixon is expecting tough opposition in the two Hutt Valley premier division men's softball matches his side will play at Fraser Park tonight. They will front up to Cardinals and Marist with two previous matches against Cardinals this season having produced a win apiece and three games againstMarist seeing Giants win twice and Marist once. Nixon said both Cardinals and Marist had strong all-round sides and Giants would need to show the same commitment which enabled them to beat Kapiti 7-2 in an Inter-City series match in Masterton last weekend to maintain their second place on the Hutt Valley competition table. "They are the sort of teams who will punish you if you aren't right on your game, you certainly can't take anything for granted against them," he said. Nixon believes Cardinals to be better equipped in the pitching department than Marist and consequently the result of that match might well depend on whether the big hitters in the Giants line-up like Gordon Wilmshurst, Justin Karaitiana and Curtis Ames can put the ball over the fence. "One big hit could be enough, that's the type of game it could be," he said. Nixon sees the strength of their own pitching department being one of Giant's main attributes tonight. Richard Clarke has coped well against Cardinals in the past and seems almost certain to pitch in that game while Justin Karaitina has generally had the measure of the Marist batters so he is likely to have the pitching job there.
