By Gary Caffell
A controversial umpiring call may have robbed Giants of a place in the grand final of the Inter City series men’s softball competition.
Level pegging at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh innings in their semifinal against star-studded Poneke-Kilbirnie at Hataitai Park on Saturday Giants were a strong chance to force the game into a tiebreaker, having secured two outs and P-K with runners on first and third bases.
However, all that changed dramatically when Giants pitcher Justin “Chunky” Karaitiana was called by one of the two umpires for an illegal pitch, therefore allowing the P-K runner to cross home base unchallenged and notch a 4-3 victory.
It was a decision hotly disputed by the Giants camp with experienced campaigner Ritchie Clarke labelled it as “gut wrenching”.
“You had two umpires out there and only one called it … if it was an illegal pitch why didn’t they both see it,” Clarke said. “It was a hell of a way to end a game, we were all pretty hot I can tell you.”
Up until that call the match had been a cracker with P-K taking an early 1-0 lead and Giants striking back to nose ahead 2-1. Two runs in the fourth innings put P-K up 3-2 and then Nathan Shannahan smashed a home run for Giants in the sixth to even things up at 3-3.
“It was a real cliff-hanger, it always had the look of going to a tiebreaker,” Clarke said, adding Giants may actually have had the edge in terms of creating scoring opportunities.
At the same time, though, he was quick to praise the defensive work of P-K, especially in one situation where Giants had runners on one and three and Junior Black Sox Campbell Gaunt hit a “screamer” down the line only for the P-K first base to make a brilliant stop and take the out, ending that innings in the process.
“Two runs there could have been enough to pull it off …we were that close,” Clarke said.
Nathan Shannahan was the standout in what was a superb all-round effort by Giants. Not only did he record a home run, he also managed two excellent bunts in the batting box and was equally effective in the field. Campbell Gaunt, too, starred with consistency in both fielding and batting.