Hawks crowned national champs

By BEN PLUMMER

The Howick Pakuranga Hawks have been crowned winners of the 2023 men’s National Club Baseball Championships. Six clubs from across Auckland came together to compete in the three-day tournament from March 31 to April 2.

Club president Mike Bongiovanni says it was a great tournament that was well-organised and the weather held off for the final on Sunday, April 2.

“A special shout out goes to the Howick Pakuranga grounds crew who quickly went into action on Saturday afternoon when it began to rain in order to have the fields ready for Sunday,” he says.

The Hawks faced North Shore City in the final and prevailed eight runs to three.

Auckland Tuatara representatives Andrew Marck and Tui Amosa both ran in two runs for the Hawks to put the game out of reach for North Shore.

“Credit to the North Shore players and coaches, they had a great tournament and were well deserving of being in the Baseball New Zealand Men’s National Championship,” Bongiovanni says.

The Hawks won four of their five games in the tournament, their most impressive being a 16-1 victory over the Waitakere Bears in which every player on the roster made at least one run.

“Howick Pakuranga Baseball Club coach John Fellet prepares every year to give his team a chance to win a national title and this year was no different,” Bongiovanni says. “Throughout the season, John built up his pitching depth so that we could win four or five games over a three day period, which is required to win a tourna- ment like this,” he says. Tui Amosa, who the Timeswrote about in November last year after he received a development player