By EKONIA PENI†
PREMIERS Brown Eagles crashed to a 10-5 defeat at the hands of SPIA Manolos in round three of the Digicel Port Moresby men’s softball competition at the weekend.
Manolos were pumped up for the match that they wasted no time in taking control of the match from the first inning when they scored their first double through Jerry Edward and skipper Daniel “Vudu”Mong.
Edward who had secured first base was scored by Mong’s home run over right out field for the New Irelanders easiest of points.
Having kept Eagles scoreless for the first two innings, Manolos again scored an extra run through Danny Pialkolos at the bottom of two before adding another three points at the bottom of the third inning through Mong, Ora Gimi and David Maira for Manolos to lead 6-1.
Eagle’s only point at this stage of the match was scored by John Patrick courtesy of a sacrifice hit by Alan John to midfield.
Apparently Eagle’s real chance of scoring came in the third inning when they had load bases but were restricted from scoring points by the Manolos’ tight fielding and the restrictive pitcher/catcher combination of brothers Saga and Ora Gimi.
However, Eagles continue their fight for four more points, two in the fourth inning through Paul Tabete and Robert Mago and two in the fifth inning through Alan John and Tabete to trail 5-6.
But Manolos’ batting clicked better at the bottom of the fifth inning when they scored four more runs through Mong, Paul Bogan, Maira and David Upaupa to seal their ten-run victory.
Poor batting was the main cause of Eagle’s downfall and the team will need to address this area of their game during training if they are to be a force to be reckoned with.
In the other matches on Saturday, PNG Power beat Kopex 4-1, Airways Bears thrashed Malangan 8-1.
In yesterday’s matches Dolphins defeated Samurai 7-6 and LBC Gazelle thrashed Bullets 19-5.
Meanwhile, clubs which did not pay their registration fees by the close of business on Friday, October 2, 2007, will have their two competition points deducted for not abiding by a decision of the association’s delegates on 8 October.
The delegates had decided that clubs that failed to pay the required fees by October 12 must lose competition points.
Therefore the clubs that stand to lose competition points for non compliance with the delegate’s decision are PNG Power, Bullets and Dolphins for the matches they won.