{"id":3128,"date":"2009-03-10T15:00:37","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T22:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3128"},"modified":"2009-03-10T18:08:45","modified_gmt":"2009-03-11T01:08:45","slug":"ramblers-triumph-at-fastpitch-champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3128","title":{"rendered":"Ramblers triumph as fastpitch champs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"http:\/\/static.stuff.co.nz\/1236641577\/419\/2248419.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\n<em>HITTING OUT: Mt Albert Ramblers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Matthew Hicks sends the ball into the outfield during their 6-5 victory over Auckland United in the Auckland fastpitch softball final at Rosedale Park on Saturday<\/em>(photo by Shane Wenzlick)<\/p>\n<p>[Auckland, New Zealand] &#8211; There were twice as many reasons for the Mt Albert Ramblers Softball Club to celebrate on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s men and women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sides won their respective finals in the Auckland fastpitch champs at Rosedale Park.<\/p>\n<p>The men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s side didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have it all their own way in their title defence against local rivals Auckland United, taking out a 6-5 victory in a match that went down to the wire.<\/p>\n<p>Going into the match United had recent form on their side, notching up two wins over Ramblers this season, though the gap between the teams was always close.<\/p>\n<p>But Ramblers know how to win finals matches, with the victory their fifth consecutive Auckland title.<\/p>\n<p>Two previously out-of-form players Bernard Hale and Bobbie King stood up when it counted for Ramblers, with both belting home runs.<\/p>\n<p>And Matthew Hicks added another late in the game to give the reigning champs the edge they needed.<\/p>\n<p>New internationals Ben and Thomas Enoka were the stand-out players for United with Ben smacking four hits from his four turns at bat and Thomas three, as well as pitching a strong game.<\/p>\n<p>Both hit home runs but the rest of the side could only manage two hits.<\/p>\n<p>The next challenge for the Ramblers is a defence of their national club title in a fortnight. If they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re successful it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll make them the top club in the country for the third year running.<\/p>\n<p>For the Ramblers women their second consecutive finals win was an upset over hot favourite Wai-takere Bears. The Bears had won 19 games in a row, before the 8-2 loss to Ramblers.<\/p>\n<p>Former international Tuhi Cooper was in outstanding form along with pitcher Carina Hale.<\/p>\n<p>During the semifinal earlier in the day, Ramblers edged out Marist 3-2.<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been an impressive couple of years for Ramblers who were promoted into the top grade last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HITTING OUT: Mt Albert Ramblers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Matthew Hicks sends the ball into the outfield during their 6-5 victory over Auckland United in the Auckland fastpitch softball final at Rosedale Park on Saturday(photo by Shane Wenzlick) [Auckland, New Zealand] &#8211; There were twice as many reasons for the Mt Albert Ramblers Softball Club to celebrate on Saturday. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}