{"id":20273,"date":"2013-03-07T10:27:15","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T18:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=20273"},"modified":"2013-03-07T10:27:41","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T18:27:41","slug":"new-zealand-black-sox-set-for-showdown-with-aussies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=20273","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Black Sox set for showdown with Aussies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>
Click logo for original news story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>By TONY SMITH<\/em><\/p>\n

The Black Sox get their chance for revenge when they clash with world softball champions Australia in Auckland.<\/p>\n

New Zealand wrapped up their round-robin campaign tonight with a 7-0 five-innings win over the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Experienced outfielder Thomas Makea batted in three runs off two big hits.<\/p>\n

The Black Sox racked up six runs in the fourth inning with some controlled, opposite-fielding hitting.<\/p>\n

The two transtasman rivals will meet in the first round of the world championship playoffs at Albany.<\/p>\n

Australia, who beat the Black Sox in the 2009 world championships final in Canada, ended section play yesterday as the only unbeaten team at the 16-nation tournament after they beat the Czech Republic 8-2.<\/p>\n

They showed their enviable pitching depth with No 3 hurler Adam Humble snaring 13 strikeouts and giving up just three safe hits.<\/p>\n

But the West Australian is unlikely to see much game-time in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Australian coach Bob Harrow is almost sure to use his ace, Andrew Folkard, against the Black Sox with left-hander Andrew Kirkaptrick as his back-up.<\/p>\n

Diminutive outfielder Cameron Bint and Nathan Jones each had two hits for Australia with Bint and Jeff Goolagong slugging triples.<\/p>\n

Canada consolidated their place as number one seed from Pool A where they finished level on points with the Black Sox.<\/p>\n

But the Canadians took top billing because they beat New Zealand 9-7 in a 26-hit slugfest last Monday.<\/p>\n

Jeff Ellsworth underlined his reputation as one of the biggest power hitters of the tournament with two home runs in Canada’s 7-0 five-innngs win over the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Stephen Mullaley also put the ball over the fence.<\/p>\n

Canadian pitchers Jason Hill and Andy Skelton split 10 strikeouts.<\/p>\n

But coach Don Bates is likely to turn to the more experienced Sean<\/p>\n

Whitten, Paul Koert and Don Scott in the playoffs or Sean Cleary, who threw a perfect game against Colombia.<\/p>\n

The Canadians will meet Pool A runners-up Venezuela tonight with the winner meeting the Black Sox or Australia tomorrow for an automatic berth in Sunday’s grand final.<\/p>\n

Venezuela scored their sixth win in pool play, 8-0 over wooden spooners Indonesia.<\/p>\n

Samoa finished third in Pool A after a 8-0 six-inning victory against South Africa.<\/p>\n

Bernard Hale – brother of Black Sox batting star Donny and Kallan Compain clouted triples for the Samoans.<\/p>\n

But Chris Kohlhase’s Samoan side faces a tough assignment this morning in a sudden-death playoff with Japan, who thrashed Mexico 13-0 yesterday.<\/p>\n

The United States avoided the ignominy of missing the playoffs for the first time.<\/p>\n

Ad Feedback<\/p>\n

They came from behind to beat Great Britain 4-1 yesterday to extend their winnng streak to four games after losing their first three matches.<\/p>\n

But the Americans still aren’t in great batting form. They had only two hits against Great Britain but their pitcher,<\/p>\n

Gerald Muizelaar, nabbed 12 strikeouts.<\/p>\n

They will clash in a sudden-death playoff with Argentina, who only edged out South American rivals Colombia 1-0 yesterday in a game that featured 25 strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Today’s results:<\/p>\n

Pool A: USA 4 Great Britain 1, Venezuela 7 Indonesia 0, Samoa 8 South Africa 0, Australia 8 Czech Republic 2.<\/p>\n

Final standings: Australia 7 wins-0 losses, Venezuela 5-2, Samoa, USA 4-3,
\nGreat Britain, Czech Republic 3-4, South Africa 2-5, Indonesia 0-7.<\/p>\n

Pool B: Argentina 1 Colombia 0, Canada 7 Netherlands 0, Japan 13 Mexico 0, New Zealand 7 Philippines 0.<\/p>\n

Final standings: Canada, New Zealand 6-1, Japan, Argentina 5-2, Colombia 4-3, Mexico 2-5,
\nNetherlands 1-6, Philippines 0-7.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow’s playoffs (Sat): 12pm: Samoa v Japan. 2.30pm: Argentina v USA.<\/p>\n

5.30pm: New Zealand v Australia. 8pm: Canada v Venezuela.<\/p>\n

(Last four named teams have two lives).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By TONY SMITH The Black Sox get their chance for revenge when they clash with world softball champions Australia in Auckland. New Zealand wrapped up their round-robin campaign tonight with a 7-0 five-innings win over the Philippines. Experienced outfielder Thomas Makea batted in three runs off two big hits. The Black Sox racked up six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6153,"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":[12,35,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-isf","8":"category-oceania","9":"category-tournaments","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20275,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20273\/revisions\/20275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}