The Black Sox lived up to their world champion tag on the opening day of the Pacific Cup in Rotorua yesterday, with victories over Samoa, the All Stars and Japan.
In a day marked by big hitting and controlled pitching, the Eddie Kohlhase-coached side adapted quickly to their oppositions' differentstyles of play, giving the vocal crowd at the Rotorua International Stadium something to cheer about.
"We had a really tough battle against Samoa and we had picked that to be the tough one of the day, with no disrespect to the other teams we played," Kohlhase said.
"We came up against Heinie Shannon who is a world class pitcher, so we were really happy to get that win under our belt and then the boys lifted themselves up a notch against the All Stars team."
In their opening encounter, the Black Sox, featuring debutants Chris Eden Huria and Damian McCulloch, recorded a 2-0 victory over Samoa.
Controlled pitching by Black Sox Jarrad Martin and Samoa's Shannon meant neither team could score until the fifth inning.
Pitching in all seven innings, Martin faced 25 batters, managed eight strikeouts and conceded one hit. Shannon pitched 4-1/3 innings, faced 14 batters, recorded six strikeouts and conceded one hit.
But the deadlock was smashed when Patrick Shannon and Rhys Casley hit back-to-back home runs, taking the score to 2-0.
Kohlhase praised the efforts of infielders Casley and Brad Rona.
The Black Sox lifted themselves up a notch when they beat the All Stars 11-3 in a hard-hitting game that included automatic home runs to Rona, Casley and Martin.
Baseballer Travis Wilson, home for the summer from the United States, hit a homer over the left field fence to score for the All Stars in the top of the fourth inning.
After picking up one run in the first inning through Thomas Makea and another three in the second, the Black Sox took control of the game to end it in six innings.
Outfielder Makea set the crowd alight in the bottom of the fifth inning with an in-the-park home run against Japan.
