Giants second at annual Wanganui tournament

Giants confirmed their standing as one of the top men's softball club sides in the country by finishing runners-up to star-studded Miramar at the annual Wanganui Braves tournament in Wanganui last weekend.
The Masterton -based side demonstrated their ability to react positively to pressure situations when after beating Angels of Wanganui 10-0 in their opening pool game they lost to Royals of Wellington 3-2.
That defeat meant they had to win their next three games to reach the semi-finals and they rose to the challenge, beating Raiders of Palmerston North 12-0, Newlands of Wellington 4-1 and Auckland United 4-3.
Up against them in the semi-finals was host club Wanganui Braves and that was a one-sided affair with Giants scoring a crushing 10-0 success.
It was a different story in the final though with a Miramar side stacked with New Zealand and Samoan internationals prevailing 7-1.
Giants have never tasted success against Miramar and coach Tony Nixon was making no excuses for the latest defeat, saying Giants had simply been beaten by a better side on the day.
"They (Miramar) bat well, pitch well and field well???they set standards that every team should aspire to," Nixon said. "We gave it everything we had but we just weren't good enough."
Nixon was delighted with Giants batting effort through most of the tourney with Corkey Kinnon manging 10 safe hits and Curtis Ames eight. Automatic home runs were struck by six players?.Justin Karaitiana, Richard Clarke, Corie Karaitiana, Travis Head, Mark Quinn and a pick-up player from Hawke's Bay in Joseph O'Leary.
Outstanding too was the consistency of pitchers Clarke and Justin Karaitiana who kept some powerful batting line-ups under wraps.
The success of Giants at Wanganui followed on a 15-3 win over Dodgers from Hutt Valley in an Inter-City series club match, a victory which has given them a strong chance of qualifying for the top six play-offs.
That will be guaranteed if they can win one or both of their matches against Royals and Porirua at Fraser Park on Saturday.
Going into those games Giants sits in third place on the points table but the points positions between the first even teams is so close that two losses on Saturday could see them drop all the way to seventh.
Before that, however, Giants will travel over the hill tonight for two Hutt Valley premier division games against Marist and Dodgers.
Coach Nixon expects them to win both of these matches although Marist did beat Giants at home before the Christmas break. "We owe Marist one??..we really want a big effort against them," he said.
Unfortunately for Giants pitcher Clarke is unavailable for tonight's matches but with Karaitiana in such outstanding form they should still be well served in that crucial area of the game.