Brave effort to remain unbeaten

Wanganui Braves pitcher Shane Foster battled back injury to lead his team to victory over Feilding on Saturday.

Facing the quickest pitcher this season and with their own battling injury, Wanganui Braves continued on their merry way to remain unbeaten in the Manawatu Senior Men's softball reserves grade.

The unit played Feilding on Saturday, winning convincingly 14-3.
Feilding had a handy chucker with the ominous nickname of "Buckshot", and he certainly lived up to the name.

He was the quickest pitcher the squad has faced this season. He struck out two top order batters in his first inning on the mound, holding Braves scoreless at their first turn at bat for the first time this season.

Feilding responded when Braves pitcher Shane Foster walked the first batter, who then stole second base advancing home on a short bunt to shallow outfield.

However, at Braves second turn at bat, the meat of the batting order produced three runs through singles to young rookies Jake Hollis and Liam Wilson. They were brought home by a solid hit to centre outfield from catcher Paddy Steele.

The runs kept flowing, the highlight coming in the fourth with two huge home runs to third baseman Aaron Mahony and second baseman Hollis.

Drama unfolded for the Braves when veteran pitcher Foster sustained a back muscle injury, restricting his pitching immensely.

With the 90 minute time limit nearly up and only requiring three outs to take the game, Feilding started latching onto Fosters pitching. With two batters driving hits straight back at Foster, who was unable to bend down to field them, walking a batter and a fielding error, Feilding ran in two more runs.

The best play of the year for Braves came when, with two down and runners on one and two, Fielding sent another solid hit to centre field, where Ash Blanche threw a perfect throw to third base to enable Mahony to tag the sliding runner to close out the ball game.