Softball: Black Sox wary of US influence on the Dutch mound

By JULIE ASH

The Black Sox will go into tonight's match against The Netherlands wary of their North American pitcher Paul Koert, says New Zealand captain Jarrad Martin.

The fourth day of the world championships in Christchurch was rained off yesterday, so the playing schedule has been revised.

As a result the Black Sox no longer have a bye today but will play the Netherlands.

The Dutch have had a mixed start to the tournament. They beat Samoa 10-8 in their first match, but then suffered a 4-3 loss to a rather ordinary South Africa.

"I pitched against them a few years ago in Europe and they are a bunch of scrappers, a lot like the Samoan team," said Martin. "They have got good hitters.

"We haven't really seen a lot of their pitching but one of the pitchers is Paul Koert, who plays in the North American league.

"A lot of us have faced him in the American seasons and he is a very tough pitcher.

"Whether they start him against us I am not too sure, so it is just a matter of us taking this game as a very serious one again, because it is important to win these types of games."

He said the Netherlands' loss to South African on Saturday was "a bit of a surprise".

"After we sort of demolished South Africa we thought they might have been a bit down in the dumps but for them to bounce back and beat the Netherlands is a huge win for them as well."

However the biggest upset of the weekend came when Samoa, ranked 15th at the championships, beat fourth-ranked Canada.

"Lots of things are happening in the tournament right now," Martin said.

"Apart from our side it is still wide open for a playoff spot. The US have come through their couple of games pretty comfortably, which was probably expected, and the Japanese have also.

"The Japanese and the US square off next (today) which is going to be a tough game.

"But I don't know whether they'll both play their trump cards or not."

The New Zealanders will go into the Netherlands match with plenty of confidence after their 9-2 win over Australia inside five innings.

"I thought that they were going to give us a bit of a challenge, but the final result sort of came through as an easy result.

"I think it was a game we deserved to win.

"We led right from the start and they were playing catch up the whole way.

"It was a big confidence boost for us. We believed that it was going to be one of our tougher pool games."

Martin, who is expected to start on the pitching mound against the Netherlands, had plenty of praise for Wellingtonian Jim Wana, elevated to the top pitching job after the withdrawal of Marty Grant through injury.

"His focus has been on the straight and narrow which is what we need.

"For someone to step up and into Marty's shoes you need them to be breathing the game.

"I think he has come a long way in terms of his focus and his mental preparation.

"If he can maintain that level I think he will hopefully be the bigger winner for us at the end."

The Black Sox match is scheduled to start at 7pm today.