North Shore celebrate with the National Championship trophy. Photo / Supplied
Two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning were enough to take North Shore City through to beat pre-tournament favourites Howick-Pakuranga (HP) Hawks two runs to one in an enthralling final at Lloyd Elsmore Park in Pakuranga.
In a pitchers duel between HP veteran Andrew Marck and North Shore's
Ryota Okumoto, hits and runs were hard to come by but in the fourth, Shore got on the board when short stop Joseph Kohlhase scored on an error, while tournament MVP Bradley Morris plated Okumoto on a fielders choice with Jack Fletcher out at second.
Okumoto celebrated his birthday by pitching an absolute gem, giving up eight hits, but just one run in the top of the 7th when HP outfielder Alex Hill scored after Okumoto walked Luke Hansen with the bases loaded.
In an exciting top of the ninth inning the game looked to be over when with two outs HP 2nd base Nick Koh popped up in the infield, but a clash of Okumoto and North Shore 1st base Matt Thomas saw the ball drop to the ground and when Hansen walked to load the bases, Andrew Marck struck out to end the game.
Okumoto celebrated the win by being named top pitcher over the four day tournament, pitching 14.1 innings an ending with an Earned Run Average of just 0.43, while Howick-Pakuranga's Keegan Swanepoel picked up best hitter with a batting average of .571. North Shore's left fielder Bradley Morris was named Tournament MVP.
