Struggling giants finish on a positive note

THATO KALA
Correspondent | Saturday May 4, 2013 00:00

 

The win saw the struggling students end the first round on a positive note. The victory did not come easy with some scrappy play from both teams in the early stages of the game. The two teams all, but showed no intentions to score runs in the first four innings.  The students broke the deadlock deep into the top five inning with just half an hour left before full time.

A few minutes later, they capitalised when Angels' second base fumbled a seemingly easy fly ball. Ndolo scored the run before Baarongwa Mmapitsa ended it on a high for Giants. Boikutlo Molekane hit a sacrifice fly ball that allowed Mmapitsa, who was at second base, to score their third run. Blue Angels had under 20 minutes to level scores but former BDF IX player, Godson Motsumi hit a foul fly and was out in no time. All the next batter could do was make it safe to first base.  Sebase Mokgweetsi and Seropola Goleseng could not help their team either.

Goleseng was out after three strikes. Giants were firmly in control in the top six inning and Ntsie Kgotla scored their fourth run after a clean hit by Motsegetsi Moloi. Thereafter, they seemingly went into a slumber as they comfortably led 4-0 with less than 10 minutes before the regulation time. Angels went in for the bottom six for compliance with softball rules as it looked clear they would not pull four back. Judging from their poor batting, Angels was always going to struggle.  As expected, they were all out in less than eight minutes. Motsumi blamed the result on poor preparations. 'We have not been training properly and it showed in our game today. We need to correct a few errors and those can be done through consistent training,' he said.

The win leaves UB Giants in mid-table ahead of the start of the second round. Oteng Sesupo of Giants said the win was a big boost for the students after struggling earlier in the round. 'We have not won many games but today we played extremely well. It's a win that motivates us as a team and everyone is eager to do better in the second round,' he said. In another game, Bears beat Dinare 10-4 on Saturday at the UB Diamond.