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NZSS Softball National Tournament Report 2011

This year’s event was held at Hickford Park in Bell Block, New Plymouth over 4 days from Tuesday 29th March to Friday 1st April. Since this year’s Division 1 Championship was to be held in Christchurch many strong softball schools decided to compete for the Division 2 Championship a little closer to home in New Plymouth. This resulted in a very strong and hotly contested Division 2 Championship. The format for the tournament was a round robin where all 9 teams played each other over 1 hour and 30 minutes with the top 2 teams to contest the Championship in a 7 innings no time limit Final.

 

 

 


On day one Hastings Boys’ High School had three games. Game one was against Wellington’s St. Pats Town. The boys played well and were victorious 6-2. Our boys then had to play again straight afterwards and put in another good performance to mercy Gisborne Boys’ High School 13-3 in the 4th innings. Game three on Tuesday evening pitted us against eventual Champions Avondale College. This game was the highlight of the tournament where great pitching from Kane Herbert and hitting from Mace Price set the team up well for their come from behind victory 6-5 in the 2nd extra time tie breaker innings.

Our great day one was then followed up by a disastrous day two.  We played our arch rivals Napier Boys’ High School in the morning and went down 10-2 in a vary lack lustre performance, which was followed up by a worse performance to lose to Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Ngati Kahungunu 2-0. This bad day ultimately pushed us back to third overall behind Avondale College and Napier Boys’.  Day three saw us up against Wanganui College and the Hutt Valley’s Taita College.  Our boys picked themselves up from a tough day 2 to mercy Wanganui 10 nil in the 4th innings with a solid all round performance. Then the boys again played well to beat Taita College 9-0.

On the final day of the tournament HBHS played Hato Paora where the mercy rule once again came into effect as we were up 10-0 in the 4th innings again. This gave us a 6 wins 2 losses record. Our win / loss record put us tied 2nd after the round robin play but in softball if two teams are tied then the winner of the game between those two teams advances and since NBHS beat HBHS they went through to the final. Avondale College had seven wins and just one loss (to HBHS) so they were the 1st placed team and other finalist. Avondale won the final 9-2.  At the prize giving a tournament team was announced and Kane Herbert was announced as the Pitcher for the tournament. This accolade was a great reflection of his dominance with both the bat and the ball. Unlucky to miss out was Mace Price who had a great batting average for the tournament. It was good to see two seniors perform so well on the national stage, with Cody Tamati and Devontae Roberts putting in some outstanding contributions on behalf of our juniors in the team.

Development of Softball at Hastings Boys' High School

The Hastings Boys' High School Senior Softball Team have been the most successful team from any sports code in Hawke's Bay over the past decade.  The Senior Team won the NZ Division 1 National Secondary Schools Championships in 2009, 2008, 2006 and 2005 producing several International players on the way.

Much of the credit for the development of Softball at Hastings Boys' High School goes to Coach Mr. Thomas Makea.  In 2009, as a long-serving Hawke's Bay age group softball coach, Tom Makea won the Ngati Kahungunu Sportsperson of the Year award after earlier winning the coaching category.  This was not long after the 2008 HBHS Softball Captain, Mr. Makea's son and Junior Black Sox catcher Campbell took home the junior sportsman award to cap a memorable night and year for the family.  Campbell Makea was the MVP and top batter at the national secondary schools' tournament in 2008. He was also Hawke's Bays Softballer of the Year for the 2007-08 season and a key member of the Junior Black Sox team which finished fourth at the Junior World Series in Canada.