By THADDEUN TIRIMAN
AIRWAYS Bears mauled LBC Gazelle 11-8 in the preliminary final yesterday in the Digicel Port Moresby Men’s A grade softball to book a grand final berth with PNG Power next week.
Gazelle were left chasing Bears throughout the game as the Bears ran away from them in the very first innings through good batting through Dick Bart Junior, Chris Avuchulas, Bobby Bais and Sam Malum coming home.
Gazelle made too many mistakes from the beginning of the game.
The Bears registered four more runs in the second innings with Bobby Bais hitting a homer to bring home with him Bart and Chris Avuchulas after Alvin Sabumei came home in an individual effort to lead 8-2 at the top of the third inning.
Gazelle managed to slow down the Bears through the inclusion of veteran pitcher Patrick Pilak but they couldn’t score as many run as they would like to equalise and by the fifth innings they were trailing 6-8.
The pressure to catch up got the better of them as they went through another spate of errors in fielding, in contrast to the classy batting by the Bears and fast running between bases resulting in runs to Consie Bais, and Chris Timi diminishing any hopes of a Gazelle comeback.
Young Gazelle backstop Toni Karani though showed some individual class, hitting two homers in fourth and sixth innings respectively bringing the house down in both occasions.
In the Under 16 preliminary finals Dolphins beat Market 2000 Brown Eagles 6-5 to advance into the grand finals with Airways Bears next week and in the B Grade, Market 2000 Brown Eagles lost to a fired up LBC Gazelle 12-16.