Giants have rocketed to the top of the Hutt Valley premier men's softball league. The defending champions were sitting second going into matches against Cardinals and Dodgers last Thursday night but two impressive victories saw them displace Cardinals as the competition pacesetters. Cardinals was, in fact, one of the two teams tofeel the heat from a fired up Giants squad. They managed only two safe hits against the pitching of Richard Clarke and while Giants did not open the scoring until the fifth innings their 3-0 win was indicative of the merits of the two sides. Clarke was in dynamic form and was helped by some superb fielding while spearheading the Giants batting effort were Justin Karaitiana, who struck a two run home run and Curtis Ames, who also managed to put the ball over the fence. Dodgers were no match for Giants in any phase of play. This time it was Corie Karaitiana who grabbed the spotlight with the bat. He had three triple base hits while Richard Clarke registered two of the same. Dodgers struggled to get any momentum against the two Giants pitchers used, Justin Karaitaina and Mark Quinn. Karaitiana pitched the first three innings and Quinn the next four. Giants coach Tony Nixon was delighted with the consistency shown by his side in both games. "Once we got on top we kept the pressure on - that's so important at this level," he said. Giants have now accumulated 20pts in the Hutt Valley premier league, two more than Hutt City United and Cardinals who both have 18. Hutt Valley Marist are fourth on 7pts with Dodgers yet to break their "duck".
