Giants to rely on local talent for victory

Cross Country Rentals Giants will be relying on local talent to bring them victory in the Hutt Valley premier and Inter-City series men's softball competitions this season.
Overseas "imports", mainly from Canada, have been a regular feature of Giants teams over the past years but they are going into their opening two matches with Hutt Valley Marist at South Park, Masterton on Saturday without any on their books.
It's a situation which adds to the difficulty of them successfully defending the Hutt Valley premier title they won last year but while coach Tony Nixon concedes it will be a "big ask" he has confidence in his side's ability to respond positively to the challenge.
"We won't be making excuses because of who's not there, we've still got the talent to do the business," he said.
"Nothing is gained by dwelling on the past and we won't be doing that."
Nixon was delighted with the form shown by Giants at a pre-season tournament at Kapiti last weekend. Sunday's play was rained off but Saturday saw them defeat the country's number two-ranked club side, Miramar, 1-0, lose to Kapiti in a closely-contested game 3-1 and hammer Poneke-Kilbirnie 10-0.
The win over Miramar was notable for the superb pitching of Ritchie Clarke who struck out seven batters and conceded no safe hits while Terry Waitere scored the winning run after a Blair Thompson drive.
It was Giants's other pitcher Justin Karaitiana who grabbed the limelight against Kapiti, not only for the consistency of his pitching but for his smashing of an automatic home run.
The big win over Poneke-Kilbirnie saw several Giants players find their batting form, including Karaitiana, who had three safe hits from as many attempts, Clarke, Ryan Shannahan, Gordon Wilmshurst and a trio of newcomers to last season's line-up, Richard Carroll, Tommy Davidson and Nathan Shannahan.
Two others interesting acquisitions to the Giants squad are Danny Brown and Campbell Gaunt, who have both been attending a national youth training camp in Auckland this week.
They were in the club's under-15 boys team last season and will play for Giants at both under-18 and senior level in 2008-09, something made possibly by their under-18 commitments occurring on Friday nights.