Hedland defeat Karratha in 40th anniversary event

Port Hedland put on a clinical display to defeat rivals Karratha 8-1 in the 40th anniversary of the North West Women’s Softball Championships.

From the outset the girls in red put themselves in a strong position in the grand final with three home runs in their first innings.

Everything seemed to go Port Hedland’s way as several skied balls fell between fielders and fielding errors at critical times cost Karratha several potential outs with batters stuck in no man’s land.

By contrast Karratha seemed to pick out fielders with every skied ball and with bases loaded on occasion failed to get any serious contact on the ball.

Hedland coach Jamie Dennie said it was satisfying defeating Karratha at home on such a big occasion.

“We have been rivals for a long time so it is awesome the way it ended up with Hedland and Karratha playing the big game, ” he said. “The weekend was absolutely awesome; they have done such a magnificent job putting this on.

“All our young juniors, and all the girls actually played really well so it’s incredible.”

Teams travelled from Geraldton, Carnarvon, Tom Price, Paraburdoo and Broome to compete in the two-day event at Bulgarra Oval.

Karratha coach Steve Armitage was in high spirits despite stumbling at the final hurdle.

“We went 10 games without a loss and sometimes at the end of a game you can look back and say well we didn’t quite get there, but in this case we got outplayed so good on them, ” he said. “When you look at the fantastic turnout, people travelled a long way and there was a fantastic spirit to make a great weekend.

“These older players who came up are the foundation softball is built on so (to) get them back here and have another game was good.”