08/03/2026
Congratulations to our Patriots women and Men's. Great end to your season.
Massive congrats to Trinity, Dufty, Penny and Cole on your awards.
Counties PROUD.🔴⚫⚪👏
Saturday was NFC finals day both the patriots men & women team were playing
RES WOMEN
First up was our women at what we thought only Tball played at 9am vs Bears
First 3 innings was a nil all ball game til the opening run came from mia Kingi-hicks to score Payton with a hit to the fence. Patriots were then able to score another 2 runs in the next inning holding bears out scoreless. What was looking like to be a run rule game up 6 nil in the 5th bears were able to hold out patriots from scoring there 7th run to end the game
Bears then showed the fight in the top of 6th to pull 2 runs back going into the bottom of the 6th only needing 3 runs to end the game with 2 runners on trinity wira-toka with her second Automatic Homerun to walk of the finals with a 3 run homerun taking the win 9-2
Haylee Abbott strong on the mound to hold out a tough bears side all season . Well done to our young girls on an awesome season
4th consecutive finals 2nd res championship well done ladies
RESERVE MEN
Second game up of the day was the res men’s , first year & time for the patriot men’s playing in the Auckland NFS reserve grade .
It was a mix of young youth 15/16/17/18 year olds with the 3 more mature aged men 40/41/44 🤣
What a great thrilling game it was about to be having 2 close encounters 2 weekends prevous losing by 1 run both times
patriots away team seen them bat first , first inning patriots managed to score in 2 runs and hold out ramblers for the first inning we managed to pull another run in with a automatic hit to jackson tapiki taking us to a 3 nil lead ramblers then hit the board and took the lead 4-3
Ramblers then chipped away at a couple more runs taking it to a 6-3 lead but patriots weren’t going to lie down til we chipped away at another one 6-4 ramblers then added some more runs taking it out to a 9-4 lead.
It wasn’t til Kaleb Wade came up with a solo Automatic home run over left field fence to add on another run taking it out to 9-5 already been playing for over 2hrs we were then heading into our last turn at bat top of the 7th these young gentleman weren’t going without fight and chipped away at that score board 1 run at a time seen us back at the top of the line up to get the ball rolling with a solo shot to Caleb dufty then a line drive hit up the middle to Jaedys hit pitch to Cole and a walk to Mikaera to score a run bases now still loaded 9-6 everyone out of there seats
High bouncer hit by Jamie to score another run and force an error at 2nd base having still loaded bases 9-7 we were then able to add in another run by a sacrifice fly by nate now 9-8 with 2 down a runner on 2 & 3 cool calm and collective batter Jackson Tapiki with a screamer of a single line drive up the middle to score another run to even up the already long ball game 🥳 now 9-9 going into the bottom of 7th ramblers lead off hitter with a screamer of a line drive to left field seen him get a triple but that’s as far as it went with patriots not allowing him to score 3 outs side away .
Into the tie breaker we go what has already been an action packed game so far of homeruns , hits, great plays .
Top of 8th patriots Lucian Cole being the runner back to the top of the line up coach Matty hicks saying swing away seen dufty send it over the outfield fence to take patriots to a 11-9 lead but thats where it ended 3 outs for the game , game plan to take our outs with a walk early seen an opportunity for a double play next batter then getting on loaded bases none out nail biting game , 3 hours have gone by … ramblers batter hits an infield fly just over 2nd base well what we thought 💭 was not to be seen Dufty throw the ball home to which was a force out but 🤔🤔🤔 no apparently it wasn’t he is safe time called questioned ask plate umpire still steering at the base ?? then the next batter illegal pitch by plate umpire another run in now 11-11 ?? Pitcher is still standing there with the ball hasn’t even moved or pitched the ball now Everyone is wondering WTF is going on … Pitcher pitchers the necxt ball illegal pitch runner scores game over bottom of the 8th !!! So figure that 3rd inning of pitching and now we calling illegal pitches , taking note we haven’t had offical umpires all season not even 1 now we get 4 and a s**t way to end a finals ….
Besides that BS … was an amazing game to watch and see our boys stay humble throughout and hold themselves high. It’s one thing we pride ourselves on is humbleness and respect Throughout our teams
What an amazing season from all our patriots teams and players as well as a huge appreciation goes out to our management and sacrifices they make ⚪️⚫️🔴
Also big congratulations to our patriots players for taking out the Individual awards amazing
Til next season Counties Proudee
