Giants: Cross Country Rentals Giants

TOUGH WEEKEND

It was always going to be a tough weekend for Cross Country Rentals Giants with two games both Saturday and Sunday at Lower Hutt’s Fraser Park.

Similar to that of a tournament schedule i.e. 2 games a day but with the added travel each day makes the task hardly easy.

Giants got off to a good start in the only intercity game of the 4, with a 4-2 win over Cardinals. Giants were rarely troubled by the Cardinal offence and maintained control of the game throughout.

Good hitting from in-form Ryan Shannahan and Danny Brown provided the sparks for Giants offence, while catcher Campbell Gaunt continues to impress.

The second game of the day against HV Marist was played in dismal conditions with a cold southerly providing less than ideal softball conditions.

Marist jumped off to a 3 run start on the back of sloppy pitching from Richie Clarke this combined with a couple of errors put Giants on the back foot from the first inning.

Far from done, Giants applied pressure late in the game but were unable to convert.

Sunday was always going to be challenging at full strength but due to work commitments senior players Ryan Shanahan, Chunky Karaitiana and Blair Thompson were unavailable.

However there absence gave some younger guys a chance to impress at the highest level.

HV Dodgers was the first assignment, and an error early in the game gave Dodgers the 1-0 lead, Giants applied little pressure throughout the game, a Richard Carroll double was the highlight of the offensive effort. Dodgers scored another couple later in the game to run out winners 4-0.

Tony Nixon returned to the pitching mound at Premier level as cover for Justin Karaitiana for the second game against Cardinals, and had the veteran pitcher got some support from the Giants fielders the game would have been a lot closer.

Nothing more can said that it was a dismal effort in field, followed by an equally poor effort in the hitting department. Cardinals winning 5-1

Valuable lessons learned over the weekend, plenty of game time for some of the younger guys who have high workloads at the moment. Four of the Cross Country Rental Giants Premier players who are also members of the Giants under 18 team had under 17 rep trials prior to Sunday’s double header.

CLINICAL PERFORMANCE

CROSS COUNTRY RENTALS GIANTS were clinical against Johnsonville, applying the 7 run mercy rule after 5 innings (game over if up by 7 or more after 5 innings) Giants winning 7-0.

In front of another good crowd at beautiful South Park, Giants took control early in the game when Richard Carroll scored on a Campbell Gaunt hit, Giants continued to threaten through out the game, with a 4-0 lead, Ryan Shannahan and rookie Australian Julian Jemmott (Just arrived on Thursday night) sealed the

game with a pair of homeruns.

Outstanding catching performance from 16-year-old Campbell Gaunt, Gaunt threw two stolen base attempts out and continues to impress behind the dish.

Ashton Shannahan impressed with some aggressive base running and the young crop of players including Danny Brown, Jordan Waitere and Shannon Rimene continue to improve and develop as the season progresses.

Captain Terry Waitere was satisfied with the result from Saturday but reiterated that it’s early in the season and there is still plenty to work on. With the addition of Julian Jemmott from Australia and the form and progress of the younger guys, there is genuine competition for spots in starting line-up.

A huge weekend a waits for Cross Country Rentals Giants as they will play 4 games over the weekend, two Saturday with Cardinals first up in Intercity competition, then Hutt Valley Marist at 3pm in Hutt Valley competition.

The task will be made harder without the services of Justin Karaitiana.

Two games in Hutt Valley competition scheduled for the Sunday with Giants to Play Dodgers at 1pm and Cardinals at 3pm.

SOLID PERFORMANCE

The Cross Country Rentals Giants Premier Men’s team scored its first win of the intercity Softball Competition on Saturday in front of a good crowd at South Park beating Hutt Valley Dodgers 3-1.

Hutt Valley Dodgers perennial easy beats in the past, have now acquired the bulk of what was the Hutt City premier team from previous seasons, Hutt City of course beat Giants in both the Intercity and Hutt Valley championship finals last season.

Boasting 3 Black Sox in pitcher Regan Manley, 2nd base Tyson Byrne and Centre fielder Rhys Casely the Hutt Valley Dodgers are a very good team.

Cross Country Rentals Giants fell behind early in the game on a couple of dubious calls, when lead off batter from Dodgers was allocated first base on a hit pitch that the batter swung at and missed.

The umpire ruled it hit him and was not a foul ball. The batter stole second and an overthrow sent him home from second, with a close play at the plate the runner was called safe and Dodgers took a 1-0 lead.

Cross Country Rentals Giants sparked a comeback in the bottom of 6th innings when young right fielder Danny Brown reached base on a gem of slap bunt down the 3rd base line this leading to a fielding error and Brown safe at second.

Captain Terry Waitere then drove the ball up the middle off the pitchers glove and Brown scored to square the ledger at 1-1. Justin Karaitiana then hit a massive blast over the fence to put Giants in front 3-1, and with some tidy fielding in the 7th inning shut out the Hutt Valley Dodgers bats.

Earlier game of the day between the two teams in the Hutt Valley Championship was a genuine slug fest, with Dodgers winning 8-6.

Cross County Rental Giants got off to a good start shooting out to a 4-0 lead. Blair Thompson hit two homeruns as the Giants centre fielder continues to run hot with the bat.

P1’s LOSE OPENER

Giants P1 literally threw away the opening game of the Intercity softball competition on Saturday against a very good Porirua United.

Giants got off to a perfect start with lead off Blair Thompson getting an in the Park homerun on an error from Porirua outfield. Leading the game for the first 3 innings 1-0.

A costly error from pitcher Richie Clarke with runners on 1^st and 3^rd cashed in two runs for Porirua for them to take a 2-1 lead, that was furthered when a base hit scored the another in the same innings.

Giants came back in the top of 7^th when Terry Waitere drove in Ryan Shannhan, closing the gap to 3-2, Giants with 2 runners on were unable to score a further run to take the game extra innings. Final result 3-2 Porirua.

Giants Play Hutt Valley Dodgers at South Park, Masterton in a double header at 12pm and 2pm, the Giants Presidents will also be in action @ home against Hutt Valley Dodgers at 12pm.

BRILLIANT START TO THE SEASON

Giants Premier Men’s team finished 2^nd at the Kapiti Classic Tournament on the weekend, featuring the best teams from the Hutt Valley and Wellington region.

There was some question marks in regards to how good Giants would be this year with a couple of tough pre-season outings against Dodgers and PK.

However all those questions were quickly dismissed come game one of the tournament with Giants beating powerhouse PK 7-1.

Richard Carroll and Nathan Shannahan combined for the first two runs.

“We put the ball in play and they made some errors and we rolled on from that” said Giants captain Terry Waitere.

Game two was played in terrible wet and cold conditions.

Giants were handed their first loss of the tournament going down to Porirua by 4-0 along with a leg injury to star pitcher Justin Karaitiana added to the frustration at the conclusion of day one.

The second day Giants put together a good display against Dodgers, winning 11-0 a solid batting display followed up by clinical fielding.

Homeruns from Blair Thompson and Ryan Shannahan were amongst the highlights.

The last game of the tournament against Miramar was essentially the final.

if Giants were to win they would have won the tournament in what was labelled as the best game of the weekend Giants were beaten 1-0 in an 8th innings tie breaker.

Giants had opportunities throughout the game and with the bases loaded at one point, but were unable to score.

Miramar scraped in a run in the bottom of the 8^th on an error and Giants were left with the silver.

Hard to single out in one performance or individuals in what was a successful weekend in terms of a team effort, catcher Campbell Gaunt had an outstanding weekend as did second base Nathan Shannahan.

Team Captain Terry Waitere led from the front all weekend both in defence and offence.

Certainly a crucial feature of the performance was the brilliant job by coaches Corie Karaitiana and Murray Brown