GAME DAY: Saturday 9th January

Tyla Morrison showed her intent for the second half of the season on Saturday, with a dominant performance for our Premier Women against Marist to win back the Colleen Callaghan Shield. Only two hits were conceded to the ladies in blue and red, singles to Freya Bullock and Nita Hickey, and seven strikeouts taken. Aroha Noanoa opened the scoring for our ladies in the 2nd inning, scoring Mikayla Cross on a well-executed squeeze play. She then added another RBI to her tally in the 4th, with an off-field ground out enough to score Kyla Bromhead. In the 7th inning, Taylor Maxwell celebrated her return from serious injury with a pinch-hit RBI single to cement the 3-0 win.

With the Shield locked up for a couple of weeks at least, our ladies turned their attention to Howick for the second game of the double header. Tenille Auimatagi showed excellent pace and game awareness, stealing home in the first inning for the first run of the game. Howick hit back in the bottom of the inning with a successful squeeze play, then edged ahead in the 3rd with a Lily Nielsen RBI single. Mikayla Cross and Tyarn Bromhead-Lemalu combined their speed and power to score one run in the 4th to tie the game, and Kaela Clark shouldered the pressure later in the inning to slam a two-out single up the middle to edge her team ahead. In the top of the 5th, Tyarn sent a deep shot to centre-right for a stand-up triple and two RBI’s, but Howick kept in touch with Tara Jeffrey scoring in the bottom of the inning. In the 6th, a five hit inning saw Bears surge out to an 8-3 lead, with another two runs scored in the 7th from a Rebecca Bromhead triple. Howick refused to lay down, scoring two runs themselves in the bottom of the 7th, but the damage done in the 6th inning proved the difference, Bears taking the 10-5 win. Caitlin Sill went the distance for Howick, and also contributed two hits and a walk from her four at-bats. Sachi Clark was solid for her 5 2/3 innings, with young Hope Maka coming in to close. It was a big hitting game, with Bears racking up fifteen hits and Howick eight, with half of the Bears line up getting five at bats for the game.

Our ladies now have the week off while their young guns go off to Pukekohe to compete in the Cameron Duncan U18 Northern Region Tournament. All the best girls, and hats off to Auckland Softball for honouring Cameron in this way!

Thank you to Rebecca Bromhead for the write up! 

Article added: Thursday 04 February 2021