Update: Click here for link to Action Shot Photo’s pics.(and click “Like” them on Facebook if you don’t see the photos)
TONY SMITH
Home-run heroics by Gareth Cook and Josh Harbrow could not prevent Canterbury suffering a national men’s softball grand final defeat to arch rivals Auckland.
The Canterbury Red Sox relinquished their title after a 5-2 defeat to an Auckland outfit inspired by injured pitcher Heinie Shannon at Lower Hutt’s Fraser Park yesterday.
Cook clubbed his sixth home run – and third against Auckland – of the four-day National Fastpitch Championship tournament in the first innings and Harbrow hammered one in the final frame.
But theirs were solo shots whereas Auckland’s bottom order batter Jarome Haretuku and player-coach Nathan Nukunuku sent shots into orbit with runners on base.
Cook and Harbrow collected two safe hits apiece but no other Canterbury batter was able to get Shannon’s measure.
Red Sox coach Greg Newton was proud his new-look team made a third consecutive NFC final but admitted the bats dried up.
“We just didn’t hit the ball,” he said. “But Canterbury has been the top province for a couple of seasons now and it all looks good for the future.”
Newton said co-captain Cook was “a class player who still has a lot to offer New Zealand softball – he just keeps producing”.
Harbrow also made an impact for much more than his eye-catching purple hair-do.
“He really did well at third base and he’s starting to hit the long ball,” Newton said. “Cooky and Josh were the standouts but a lot of the young guys, like Callum Muir, stepped up.”
Nukunuku hailed Shannon’s “inspirational” courage in pitching the final when he was “hurting” and his “arm’s hanging off”.
Newton, a former Black Sox pitcher, said Canterbury were hoping to capitalise on Shannon’s inability to throw the rise ball pitch.
“But he used his drop and his change-up to keep us off balance.
Heinie’s competitive, we knew he wasn’t going to give in.”
Canterbury pitcher Penese Iosefo has been battling a back niggle but was Newton’s obvious choice to throw the final.