{"id":3535,"date":"2009-07-26T22:28:41","date_gmt":"2009-07-27T05:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2009-07-27T07:37:46","modified_gmt":"2009-07-27T14:37:46","slug":"australia-no-hits-new-zealand-in-world-mens-softball-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3535","title":{"rendered":"Australia no-hits New Zealand in world men’s softball final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, no! Oh, yes! Australia no-hits New Zealand in world men’s softball final<\/strong><\/p>\n

BY KATHRYN WILLMS,
\nTHESTARPHOENIX.COM<\/p>\n

\"\"Adam Folkard pitched a no-hitter as Australia ended the reign of New Zealand on Sunday in Saskatoon, winning the ISF World Men’s Softball Championship. Photograph by: Greg Pender and Liam Richards, The StarPhoenix
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

SASKATOON \u00e2\u20ac\u201d As Australia and New Zealand prepared to do battle in the world softball championship final, the question of the day was whether Australia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s young pitching studs, Adam Folkard and Andrew Kirkpatrick, could quell the explosive Kiwi bats once and for all.<\/p>\n

Folkard answered that question all on his own.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old pitched a no-hitter to propel his team from a modest place in the annals of softball history to the top of the world. The upstart Aussie side stomped all over the old world order, the three-time defending champion Kiwis, to win its first gold medal.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Folkard, in characteristic understatement, before deflecting the praise. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The fielders were great. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got to come back to them as well.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n
\nAustralia ended the reign of New Zealand on Sunday in Saskatoon, winning the ISF World Men’s Softball Championship. Photograph by: Greg Pender and Liam Richards, The StarPhoenix<\/em><\/p>\n

The Australian team established itself as a contender early in the tournament, going 6-1 in the round-robin, but broke from the pack after defeating its toughest competition, New Zealand 7-0 on Friday night and Canada 2-0 Saturday.<\/p>\n

Folkard and coach Bob Harrow admit that they probably surprised a lot of people by upsetting the favourites, but that had been the plan all along. Harrow says this team is 20 years in the making, from the days when Australia imported Canadian pitchers to show them the ropes. Years later, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing the payoff in the best generation of young pitchers in the world and their first gold.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was quietly confident that we could do it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Harrow. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153These guys have been put together, molded.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

After 10 days of heart-breaking losses and miraculous recoveries, the championship came down to Round 2 of a classic battle of the Pacific. Two nights before, Australia and New Zealand had faced off for the first time. The result changed the entire course of the tournament. In six innings, Australia devastated the Black Sox both physically and mentally. Folkard kept New Zealand to one hit Friday as the Kiwis, looking like shells of their former selves, struggled on routine infield plays, committed errors and, more worryingly, never got their aggressive hitting game off the ground.<\/p>\n

While Australia advanced to beat Canada enroute to making the final, the loss propelled the Black Sox down the path of most resistence. To make the final, they played heart-stoppers against Japan, the United States and Canada, eliminating all three teams to be the last one standing. Their signature swagger gone, the Sox worked themselves back into form with every at-bat, every inning, every game. When they took the field on Sunday afternoon, they had played nine hours of ball in just more than a day, but finally looked strong. The well-rested Australian squad hardly seemed to notice.<\/p>\n

Lead off hitter Thomas Makea nearly destroyed Folkard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no-hitter from the top, walking on his first at-bat and reaching third before the inning ended. It was downhill from there. The Kiwis would reach base only one more time, on a walk, before being stopped in their tracks.<\/p>\n

The Aussies, meanwhile, took advantage of some early Black Sox fielding errors to take the lead. Nick Shailes scored in the second off an errant throw to third. He struck again in the fourth after getting on base on a fielding error. The Aussies continued to jack up their lead , but Tyron Bartorillo put the nail in the coffin with a home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Folkard struck out three in a row, bringing his game tally to 10, to end the game in the top of the seventh. Heinie Shannon, who allowed three runs, one earned, on four hits, took the loss.<\/p>\n

The Kiwi side accepted the blow stoically as they shook hands with their rivals.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Second is a bitter pill to swallow,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d admitted head coach Eddie Kohlhase. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Five years of planning . . . It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a funny old game, but today, they deserved to win a world championship.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Kohlhase pointed out New Zealand\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Michael White was the last pitcher to deliver a no-hitter in the final. It was 1996, in the game against Canada that started the Kiwi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s three-championship run.<\/p>\n

Brad Rona, the Kiwi third baseman who distinguished himself as one of the best hitters in the tournament with a 76 on-base percentage, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to think about the fact that that era is over.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153(The silver medal) won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go on the mantle piece,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said with a grin. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be tucked away where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never see it again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

kwillms@sp.canwest.com<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a9 Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nTeam Australia celebrated a gold-medal on Sunday in Saskatoon at the ISF World Men’s Softball Championship<\/em>Photograph by: Liam Richards, The StarPhoenix<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, no! Oh, yes! Australia no-hits New Zealand in world men’s softball final BY KATHRYN WILLMS, THESTARPHOENIX.COM Adam Folkard pitched a no-hitter as Australia ended the reign of New Zealand on Sunday in Saskatoon, winning the ISF World Men’s Softball Championship. Photograph by: Greg Pender and Liam Richards, The StarPhoenix SASKATOON \u00e2\u20ac\u201d As Australia and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535"}],"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=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}