Third Equal in National Softball Champs

Recently, our Hamilton Boys' High School Senior A Softball team travelled down to Wellington to compete in the NZSS Division 1 Softball Nationals.  With an experienced side, combined as well as some new, young talent, we were confident that we could back up our runner-up performance from last year with another strong showing.

We started off shakily, with a 6 - 5 loss to Mt Albert Grammar School at the beginning of the tournament.  We then played well, coming from behind to beat Nelson College 4 - 3 in a tight game.

Day 2 began with a win over St Patrick's Silverstream from Wellington, 4 - 1.  We went into our afternoon game feeling confident, and managed to beat a tough Wellington College side 7 - 2, which placed us second after two days of games.

Our third day started with a win by default over Tawa College, 7 - 0.  We played Rongotai College next, who have a current New Zealand Men's softball player pitching for them.  A frustrating game for the boys ended in a 4 - 2 loss.  To finish Day 3, we faced eventual winners Marlborough Boys' College.  Although we played well, Marlborough came away with the win, 3 - 2.

On Day 4, we played defending champions, Massey High School.  A good start put us up-front early, but Massey clawed their way back to level the score 3 - 3.  The game went into tie-breaker, and a few costly errors from us, combined with timely hitting from Massey, secured them a win of 8 - 6.  Our final game versus Napier Boys' High was a 'must win' contest for both teams.  The winner would secure a top four spot, while the loser would play off for fifth and sixth place.  We startted off poorly and found ourselves trailing 7 - 1 going into the last innings.  Under pressure, the team then stepped up and scored the necessary seven runs.  Our field then comprehensively shut out the Napier batters and held on to win the game 8 - 7, a remarkable copmeback, securing fourth spot for the semi-finals.

Day 5 saw HBHS playing against Massey High, a replay of last year's national final.  A horrid start found us six runs behind after the first inning.  The team fought back, getting to within three runs of Massey by the last inning, but we just fell short, losing 10 - 7 in a tense semi-final.  Although we didn't manage to met our goal of winning the tournament, we came away proud of our performance and accepted the place of third-equal on points.

Individual standouts of the team included Levi Ririnui, our captain Vinnie Harris and vice captain Khalid Gilbert.  Levi finished as the seventh top batter, Vinnie was identified in the top five pitchers (and also as the third top batter), and I finished as both the second top batter and catcher in the tournament.  Vinnie and I were also selected into the tournament team.

We would like to thank our coach, Cowley Harris, for taking the time to coach our team, our manager, Mr Nixon, for taking care of the team off the field, our mums, June and Maria, for preparing the lunches and dinners, and all of our parents and sponsors for getting us down to Wellington to compete.

Thank you.

Khalid Gilbert