Sisters claim city title

By HENRY MORABANG
UNITED Sisters survived a strong fight from a young Bears outfit to win 8-4 in Port Moresby women’s softball A grade grand final on Saturday.
Assisted by good batting, the Oscar Karai and Dick Bart-coached team did everything they learnt from the training to beat the young Bears outfit.
Despite being regular finalist in the women’s grand final, Bears failed to live up to expectation after thrashing Wantoks 11-1 a week earlier.
United Sisters made their intention known at the bottom of the first to score two runs through Priscilla Moke and Florence Daple.
The part-Bougainvillean and East New Britain short-stop, is the player to watch in the coming years.
Daple, who followed her father Tony Daple’s footsteps is not only good in fielding but a very good batter who scored three out of three in batting to ensure her team registered the runs in the final.
Sisters raced away with the scoreline in the next three innings scoring four runs in the bottom of the second through catcher Tessa Karai and Priscilla Moke who picked up her second run for the afternoon while young Daple came home to add another run to her name, and Nickol Mamia picked up another.
The Dick Bart team added another extra run to lead 7-0 at the bottom of the third inning.
Bears had other thoughts when they scored two runs from veteran Diane Gideon and young Mathilda Pagal to keep them in the race at the top of the fourth inning to trail 7-2. At the bottom of the fourth inning, Sisters added one more run through Priscilla Moke to lead 8-2.
With their never-say-die resolve, Bears scored two through Carol Apelis and Francine Malum. The next two innings were scoreless and Sisters defended their lead to win the 2017 Port Moresby women’s softball title.
In the B grade division, Yokomo shot down Mariners.
In the men’s elimination and preliminary finals, young Brown Eagles upset United Brothers 4-3 but could not go past PNG Power who won 5-4.
PNG Power will now face Yokomo which should see a very interesting grand final next week to close out the softball season..