{"id":16013,"date":"2012-02-19T11:07:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T19:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=16013"},"modified":"2012-02-20T19:30:47","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T03:30:47","slug":"auckland-denies-canterbury-back-to-back-nz-nfcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=16013","title":{"rendered":"Auckland denies Canterbury back to back NZ NFCs (post updated with photo link)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update:<\/strong> Click here for link to Action Shot Photo’s pics.<\/a>(and click “Like” them on Facebook if you don’t see the photos)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click logo for complete story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Canterbury brave but beaten<\/strong>
\nTONY SMITH <\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Cook clubbed his sixth home run \u2013 and third against Auckland \u2013 of the four-day National Fastpitch Championship tournament in the first innings and Harbrow hammered one in the final frame.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Cook and Harbrow collected two safe hits apiece but no other Canterbury batter was able to get Shannon’s measure.<\/p>\n

Red Sox coach Greg Newton was proud his new-look team made a third consecutive NFC final but admitted the bats dried up.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Newton said co-captain Cook was “a class player who still has a lot to offer New Zealand softball \u2013 he just keeps producing”.<\/p>\n

Harbrow also made an impact for much more than his eye-catching purple hair-do.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Nukunuku hailed Shannon’s “inspirational” courage in pitching the final when he was “hurting” and his “arm’s hanging off”.<\/p>\n

Newton, a former Black Sox pitcher, said Canterbury were hoping to capitalise on Shannon’s inability to throw the rise ball pitch.<\/p>\n

“But he used his drop and his change-up to keep us off balance.<\/p>\n

Heinie’s competitive, we knew he wasn’t going to give in.”<\/p>\n

Canterbury pitcher Penese Iosefo has been battling a back niggle but was Newton’s obvious choice to throw the final.<\/p>\n

Click here to read the complete story.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: Click here for link to Action Shot Photo’s pics.(and click “Like” them on Facebook if you don’t see the photos) Canterbury brave but beaten 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oceania","8":"category-tournaments","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16013"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16019,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16013\/revisions\/16019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}