Softball: Auckland secure top spot despite loss to Wellington

Auckland coach Nardi Leonard believes the high standard of play in this year's national women's softball league reflects the calibre of the coaches involved.

Leonard's Auckland side had a 2-0 win and a 7-5 loss against Wellington on Saturday, which was enough to secure them the top spot heading into this weekend's play-offs where they will be joined by Wellington, Canterbury and Hutt Valley.

The Auckland men's team also finished top of the table ahead of Wellington, Hutt Valley and Canterbury.

"I think the competition has been quite even really," Leonard said.

"I think that is because there are some really top coaches out there.

"Hutt Valley have [national coach] Mike Walsh, Canterbury have got Jason Kumeroa and Phillipa Ward is with the Wellington team.

"There is some good coaching going on which means everyone has got to work hard to get wins."

In the final of the round robin competition, played over the weekend, defending champions Auckland beat Wellington 2-0 in a tie breaker, but they then lost 7-5 in the second match.

"I suppose from our point of view we were really targeting the first game because if we won that then we secured first spot regardless of the result in the second game," Leonard said.

"Although it wasn't intentional to lose the second game obviously, in fact I was pretty disappointed at the end.

"We held a 5-0 lead then lost 7-5.

"We had a lot of our bench players on in that game so it wasn't our top lineup."

Leonard rates her team's 2-0 win as their best performance all season.

"We have been winning but we haven't been playing well.

"The game was really led from the front by Kalala Faalogo and Fiona Timu. Michelle Kingi also had a great game."

The loss is Auckland's first this season.

"Wellington have got a great hitting lineup.

"We have got a great lineup as well but we probably don't have any many power hitters as they do.

"We have been a bit ablaze and unfocused.

"We have been sitting in the dugout and the girls have been talking about things that have nothing to do with the game.

"But I was really happy with the team's win in that first game because everyone was into it right from the word go."

The national league is being played much earlier this year in order to make way for the men's world championships in Christchurch.

They start at the end of January, and Leonard said that could be a contributing factor in her team's sluggish start.

"We don't normally have such tough competition pre-Christmas," she said.

"We are used to having this type of competition post-Christmas," she said.

In the men's competition Auckland completed a clean sweep in their final round matches beating the Central Vikings 10-0 and Hutt Valley 7-5 yesterday.

On Saturday they beat the Vikings 11-1 and Hutt Valley 3-2.

North Harbour had a mixed weekend, beating the Central Vikings 13-0 then losing 1-0 to Hutt Valley on Saturday.

Yesterday they lost to the Central Vikings 10-3 and beat Hutt Valley 10-9.

North Harbour finished the competition 6th out of seven teams.