Saturday January 22, 2000

The Olympic softball stadium is a home-run heaven with a record 69 already struck in the first six days of the national softball championships at Blacktown.

New South Wales power-slugger Natalie Titcume leads the home run charge with six followed by seven players with three apiece.

More home runs are expected in tonight's grand final with superpowers NSW and Queensland, who have a total of 36 home runs between them, on target to clash.

It easily overhauls the previous record total of 55 at the 1998 national championships at Homebush.

There are several proposed reasons for the home-run blitz, including the aerodynamic design of the stadium, harder and more elastic balls and stronger and Olympic-motivated batters.

Harding has been a surprise critic of the amount of home runs, saying it has become too easy to hit a home run and the fence should be moved further away than its current distance of 200ft.

"The balls are hard, but girls are a lot stronger and hitting the ball harder," she said. "The fence should be moved back so it is more of a challenge."

Titcume and Australian coach Bob Crudgington said Harding was speaking from a pitching point of view and most spectators liked to see home runs.

SOCOG competition manager Lesa Straker said Mizuno balls, which are softer balls, would be used at the Sydney Olympics while there were no plans to move the fence further away. The national championships, an Olympic test event, are using Olivier balls.

Both Titcume and Crudgington said Australian batters had improved their hitting of the pitches, which reach speeds of up to 110kmh.

Titcume, who is enjoying a career-high home-run haul for a tournament, said she benefited from training against male pitchers.

"Home runs are exciting and that's what crowds like to see because pitchers have dominated the international game for a few years," she said.

"The balls are hard, but it still takes a lot to hit over the fence."

Saturday January 22, 2000

Victoria has survived a late ACT ambush to triumph 7-4 and qualify for today's national championship preliminary final in Sydney.

The Victorians today face the loser of the match between NSW and Queensland.

Peta Edebone produced a sixth-innings captain's knock when she thundered a centre-field double to score Amy Borbiro and Shelley Gwynn, who had achieved base hits.

Charelle Ainslie's deep centre-field sacrifice fly brought home Edebone to increase the lead to 7-4.

A four-run fourth inning took Victoria to a 4-0 lead.

But the ACT equalized 4-all in the top of the fifth with a reply home run by McCreedy, which scored Pridham, and a Suzy Brown home run, which scored Tiana Westbury.

Sunday January 23, 2000

Victoria proved giantkiller yesterday by defeating highly-fancied Queensland 3-2 to make the final of the national softball championships in Sydney.

The star-studded Queensland batting line-up was tamed by Victoria's youngest pitcher, Hayley Punter, who turns 19 tomorrow.

Punter played with poise and control beyond her years while the seasoned Queenslanders panicked and managed only six hits.

Queensland started promisingly when captain Kim Cooper whacked the third pitch of the game for a home run before Carrie Norman was replaced by Punter, who had seven strike-outs.

Queensland had 10 Olympic contenders playing with the knowledge that the Olympic shadow team would be named on Tuesday.

Victoria, who scraped into the final series on percentages before upsetting ACT the opening semi-final, found itself unexpectedly against odds-on favourite and defending champion NSW in the grand final.