The softball season started last Friday night with 18 teams in the junior grades and eight teams in the senior grade. There are also eight teams entered in the slow pitch competition held on Tuesday nights.

Fairfield will once again be a team to watch having a good win against the Development team 8-nil. Their pitcher, Dan Flanagan, dominated the game taking 13 strikeouts from the 15 batters he faced. Top batter for Fairfield was Tony George with a home run.

The pitcher/catcher combination of Connor Stewart and Tom Quested worked well for the Development team with Connor taking five strikeouts and only giving up three safe hits. It was a promising start for the two youngest players in the team.

The Development team is playing in the senior competition in preparation for the U19 Boys Nationals to be held in Palmerston North in January.

Scoring 12 runs in the first inning, Phoenix Titans, the new team in the competition, were well placed to take out the win over Zingari Dirty Pirates. The Dirty Pirates didn't give up and scored six runs in the fourth inning to make the score 13-9. Three of these runs were from a home run to Jacob White. A home run in the fifth inning to Cam Westoby made the final score 13-10 to Titans.

Top batter for Titans was Jalen Johnston and Cam Westoby was the Dirty Pirates’ top batter.

The Steelers batted strongly throughout their game against Temuka BlackHawks winning 15-0 in three innings. Blair Hogan was top batter with three safe hits from three turns at bat.

PG Panthers also started their campaign well defeating Zingari Dirty Reds 12-3.

Junior Grade results:

U10 Tee Ball: Zingari Bobcats 14, Temuka Falcons 11; Oceanview Heights 12, GD Red Rockets 3; Temuka Eagles 17, Zingari Cobras 8

U13 Little League: Zingari Dragons 6, Oceanview Heights 1

U16 Softball: Zingari Mustangs 13, Temuka Cardinals 5. — Keri Murphy, secretary

South Canterbury Softball