***PREMIER SOFTBALL WRITE UP***

 SATURDAY 15^th DECEMBER 2018

Tony Smith

NEW AMERICAN PITCHER AND TIGERS ALL-ROUNDER IMPRESS IN FINAL PRE-CHRISTMAS GAMES

Black Sox squad member Jackson Watt is fast proving Canterbury softball’s equivalent of a cricketing all-rounder.

The ELE Papanui Tigers stalwart shone on the pitching mound and then in the batter’s box as Papanui completed a couple of low-scoring shutout wins to close the pre-Christmas component of the Canterbury premier men’s softball championship at Mizuno Ballpark on Saturday December 15.

It was all in a day’s doubleheader work for Watt before he and brother Nathan, the Tigers’ catcher, took off to the Horncastle Arena to watch Nathan’s twin, Sam Watt, win his first pro boxing bout on the undercard to former world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker’s knockout win over Mexico’s Alexander Flores.

Meanwhile, American pitcher Kaycee Prevedel made a winning start to her New Zealand softball career by pitching Sydenham Kereru to a big win over Papanui at Papanui Domain.

The 25-year-old from Utah played NCAA Division Two softball for Adams State University in Colorado after an earlier stint career at Colorado’s Trinidad State Junior College.

Prevedel is the third American import pitcher in the five-team Canterbury premier women’s competition after American compatriot Paige Crawford – in her second year with the PCU Angels – and Papanui’s Martina Vicenova, from the Czech Republic.

WOMEN

SYDENHAM KERERU 10 PAPANUI 1

She has the perfect forename for a pitcher and Kaycee Prevedel took two Kcs among her nine strikeout victims on the Lesley Byrne Memorial diamond at Papanui.

Prevedel – who has had prior international experience with an Austrian League club called the Crazy Chicklets from Wiener Neustadt  – showed some good control in her first game in Christchurch, giving up no walks and just three safe hits.

Leadoff batter Jess Thornley led SK’s hitting onslaught with two triples and a single, plus two RBIs, to go three from three for a perfect 1.000 average.

Cassie Siataga also batted 1.000 from a triple and a single, Carly Werahiko went two from three and her sister, Krsytal, had SK’s other safe hit.

Rhonda Hira’s SK leapt out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and added another three runs in the fourth frame.

Hana Allan, Martina Vicenova and Holly Male had hits for Papanui, who included players as young as 13 and promoted reserve grade players in their Saturday squad.

HALSWELL 7 PAPANUI 0

Canterbury Red Hawks Lucy McIntyre has performed ably on the pitching mound for the Halswell Hornets with Jenni Mumm awaiting an operation and Amy Begg not yet back from her American college career.

McIntyre struck out nine Papanui batters and slugged a triple as Halswell rounded out a five innings win.

Lorin Cook and catcher Finlay Martin scored in the top of the second inning after hits by Isabella Waterman and Emma Thornley.  McIntyre crossed in the third and Halswell scored four times in the fourth after hits by Waterman (who batted 1.000), Olivia Cassin and McIntyre, with her three-bagger.

Halswell’s pressure told as Papanui committed seven fielding errors.

Papanui took just one hit off McIntyre, a first inning triple by pitcher Vicenova, their most experienced player. At one point, the Halswell hurler struck out five batters in a row.

PCU ANGELS 3 KAIAPOI 1

Hits were few and far between in the feature women’s game at Mizuno Ballpark, but Kaiapoi walked in two runs to give competition leaders PCU a narrow win.

Kaiapoi’s Canterbury pitcher Lauren Sutherland racked up seven strikeouts and conceded just two hits but delivered 11 walks, some of which proved critical.

PCU scored after leadoff Allyne Clark picked a walk in the top of the first inning and crossed on a bases-loaded walk.

The Angels’ Johanna Church got a free pass in the second inning and advanced to third base after two walks before plating on an infield error. Number nine batter Samantha Henderson added the third run when Sutherland walked another batter with bases loaded.

To her credit, Sutherland recovered to shut PCU out for the rest of the game, but Kaiapoi could only pull back one run when Jessica Mehr doubled to drive in Arnora Hesp, who had singled in the bottom of the third.

Kaiapoi’s only other hits came in the fifth, from Katelyn Bayer and Layla Bailey-McDowell.

Only pitcher Paige Crawford and Caitlin Davidson (from an infield single) managed hits off Sutherland.

Crawford fanned eight Kaiapoi batters and did not yield a walk.

MEN

PAPANUI 3 HALSWELL 0

Jackson Watt’s left-handed hurling proved too hot for the Hornets to handle.

The 20-year-old – likely to toe the rubber at the national under-23 championships in Lower Hutt in early January – totted up 14 strikeouts and allowed only two hits (both to Halswell centrefielder Mitch Burrows).

All the scoring action came in the first inning when the Tigers got three men across the plate after back-to-back hits by young shortstop Caleb Stewart, Watt and veteran Tyron Bartorillo, who clouted a double.

Halswell starter Jontae MacDonald did not give up another hit before handing over in the fifth frame to DP Jacob Wedlock, who conceded an infield single to Stewart (Papanui’s batter of the game with two hits from three at-bats).

PAPANUI 2 KAIAPOI 1

The later game was one for the purists – a proper, old-fashioned pitching duel between Papanui Tigers ace Ben Watts and the Kaiapoi Kings’ Ethan Johnston.

Both men are legitimate Black Sox contenders. Watts is already in the training squad and should get a shot at the Challenge Cup tournament in Auckland in February. Johnston has been on the selectors’ radar in the past and impressed last year in pitching Canterbury to the national under-23 crown.

Johnston, a former Papanui player, has signed up for Kaiapoi since returning from an off-season stint in the U.S, in a move which should give him and Watts more, much-needed mound time.

The pair went head-to-head on Saturday with Watts winning the strikeouts count, 12-9.

All the scoring came in the fourth inning.

Jackson Watt (who batted two from two) singled, advanced on an error and scored on Antony Stuart’s rightfield drive. Stuart doubled the lead after an infield fumble.

Kaiapoi’s Paul Barker – another former Papanui player – smashed an automatic home run off Watts in the bottom of the fourth.

Barker, 38, a former Canterbury ice hockey representative, has been off the senior softball scene for a few years after switching to baseball. But he showed some of the old touch, which saw him help the Canterbury Red Sox to the 2012 National Fastpitch Championship title, as a 32-year-old rookie.

“Chewy’’ Barker was the top batter of the game with three hits from three times up against the Tigers’ Black Sox pitcher.

Catcher Josh Lubjiewski and outfielder Luke Sutherland (also former Papanui players) picked up Kaiapoi’s other hits.

PCU 15 ALBION 0

Fifteen runs, fifteen hits and a four innings rout ensued as the PCU Devils delivered a demolition job.

Cam Watts produced the star turn with two home runs (one inside-the-park and the other automatic).

Leadoff Curtis Dove (three from three) and Quinn Wickens (two from two) batted 1.000 Andy Verheul went two from three and Ihaka Davis two from four as Devils coach Ted Forrester got a great return from his whole hitting lineup.

Hunter Martin, Jamie Holmes (double) and Dylan Potts got hits for Albion against PCU pitcher Ryan Britt, who bagged six strikeouts

Article added: Tuesday 18 December 2018