RI wins 1 gold, 1 silver in softball at Arafura Games

By Handayani Primastuti

DARWIN, Australia (JP): Indonesia's men's softball team won the last gold medal on offer at the Arafura Games Oval but the women's team lost its gold-medal match against Chinese Taipei.

Indonesia beat the Northern Territory 6-0 in just under two hours.

Dondy Apriliandi, Lukmanul Hakim and captain Tony Pratono hit three runs in the first innings, thanks to fielding mistakes by the home side.

In the second and third innings, Indonesia failed to score because the Northern territory fielded better and Roy Umbasan and Gofur Novanto were both out caught.

But in the fourth innings, Dondy returned home safely thanks to teammate Lukmanul Hakim.

Roy Umbasan added another in the fifth after hitting the ball over the fence for a run after Djuhari and Iwan Pujianto were already out.

In the sixth innings, Dondy added another run.

"I was very satisfied with their performance today. They were unbeaten in 10 matches during the Arafura Games and I think it was excellent," said Indonesia's New Zealand coach John Lowes.

"It's a good international experience for them. And our next goal is to win the Southeast Asian Games gold," he said.

In the women's final Chinese Taipei played faultlessly, while Indonesia looked shaky at critical moments.

Taipei's Liu Lili, Chang Mai Lay and Cheng Mei Chih all made home runs in the first innings.

Indonesian players seemed taken aback by their rival sudden success and played cautious.

Neither team scored again until the fifth innings.

Ajeng Susan, who was on third base, and Teti Widawati on second, made it home thanks to compatriot Carrin Garimurti, who hit a bunt but had to retire.

Indonesia had narrowed the score 2-3.

But in the sixth innings, Chiang Hu Chuang, Chien Chen Yu and Liu Lili made three more runs as short stop Nurjanah fumbled the ball.

Indonesia failed to score in the final innings and had to settle for silver.

Performance

Despite the loss coach Ajang Suparlan was satisfied with the team's performance.

"Taipei is a good team, but our team performed well enough today," he said.

"But we must work hard on pitcher Mutiara's accuracy in meeting the need of our catcher," he said.

Ajang said Mutiara was faster than Taipei's pitcher but she still needed to work on her accuracy.

"We still have time to work on it because the Southeast Asian Games are still five months away," he said.

Indonesia brought home 30 gold, 21 silver and 17 bronze medals from the Arafura.

Final Medal Tally

Gold Silver Bronze Total

----------------------------- Australia 135 128 136 399 Northern Territory 97 68 68 233 Queensland 18 24 24 66 Australian Defense Forces 6 15 11 32 Western Australia 6 8 8 22 North Queensland 4 5 7 16 New South Wales 2 4 8 14 Victoria 1 1 3 5 Australia Country 1 0 1 2 South Australia 0 1 3 4 Torres Strait Islands 0 1 2 3 Australia 0 1 1 2 Malaysia 35 32 32 99 Sabah 27 19 23 69 Malaysia 3 5 2 10 Johor 3 3 4 10 Trengganu 2 4 2 8 Kuala Lumpur 0 1 0 1 Penang 0 0 1 1 Indonesia 30 21 17 68 Chinese Taipei 23 11 9 43 Hong Kong 11 11 13 35 Fiji 10 6 5 21 Papua New Guinea 9 17 19 45 Vietnam 9 14 2 25 China 6 2 8 16 Haikou 3 2 4 9 Hainan province 2 0 4 6 China 1 0 0 1 The Philippines 5 4 3 12 Philippines 2 3 1 6 Mindanao 2 3 1 6 Thailand 5 4 1 10 USA (Guam) 4 7 9 20 N. Mariana Islands (Saipan) 3 4 2 9 New Zealand 3 4 0 7 Brunei Darussalam 2 6 11 19 Pacific Oceania 2 2 0 4 Japan 1 2 3 6 Tahiti (French Polynesia) 1 1 4 6 South Africa 0 3 3 6 Macau 0 2 3 5 Singapore 0 1 4 5 Nauru 0 0 1 1

--------------------------- Total 294 282 285 861