Cartwright helps Hutt avenge loss

Former White Sox pitcher Sheree Cartwright clouted an over-the-fence home run as Hutt Valley avenged their first-round loss to Canterbury and confirmed their favouritism for the women's national fastpitch championship title.

"She's just a machine when it comes to hitting," said Hutt Valley coach Naomi Shaw after watching Cartwright's massive blow in the third inning of a 7-0 win over the Canterbury Red Hawks.

"That was a line drive on a men's field. She's hitting very consistently at this tournament."

Cartwright sent the ball soaring over the left-centrefield fence – set at 78m, the international men's regulation distance.

The former Southlander had earlier smote a bases-loaded grand slam home run on an open diamond in Hutt Valley's 7-0 win over the Southern Pride.

Cartwright was also in commanding form on the pitching mound against Canterbury, taking four strikeouts conceding just three hits, including two out of two to third base Nicole Baxter.

The experienced hurler still looks good enough to do a job for the White Sox as a hitter and a relief pitcher.

Shaw said Hutt Valley had been "pretty peeved" to lose their opening game on Sunday to Canterbury, 4-3 in a tiebreaker. We had set a goal of going through the tournament unbeaten, so we were annoyed. But maybe it wasn't a bad thing."

Shaw said Hutt had "illegal pitching issues" in the first Canterbury encounter, but had "resolved that", although Cartwright still got called once for an illegal delivery yesterday.

"But we'd rather it happened on the first day than at the business end of the tournament," Shaw said.

She said Hutt's batting had clicked into gear and second base Api Stone-O'Kane had been outstanding in the field and shown "sheer speed" on the basepaths.

"We are going to be a difficult team to take down now as long as we can keep our pitching together and our hitting starts coming through."

Hutt's White Sox hurler Alisha Manley held Southern Pride to three safe hits, two of them to Marlborough's Anthea Stringer.

Canterbury, unbeaten on the first day, lost all three games yesterday. They lost 4-1 to - Wellington after consecutive extra-base hits by White Sox trio Alison Boys, Brooke Cutting and Megan Farrell in the third inning. Canterbury's Char Pouaka continued her good hitting form with two hits from three at bat.

Auckland beat Canterbury 8-4, then demolished Southern Pride 18-3 but went down to Wellington 2-0.

In the men's competition, unbeaten Canterbury qualified in first place for the playoffs after they beat Wellington 4-1.

Wellington, who beat Southern Pride 9-0, were second followed by Auckland and Hutt Valley, then North Harbour and Southern Pride.

Wellington lead their pool and will face Hutt Valley and Southern Pride to secure a semifinal position, while Canterbury, Auckland and North Harbour will contest the other pool.

Hutt Valley coach Darryl Marino was pleased with his side's performance. They beat Southern Pride 6-5 in the tiebreaker but lost to Canterbury 8-0.

Last month it looked as if the province might not field a team, but now Marino wants to make the semifinals.

"We got over that hurdle, and I thought they would do well because we had 12 or 13 guys who really wanted to come and play," Marino said.

Marino gained more satisfaction from Hutt Valley's win over Auckland, 5-4 on the opening day of the tournament, for the Jimmy Cotter Memorial Trophy.

- © Fairfax NZ News