The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Manager Hazel McDonald said his Creter’s Bulldogs’ triumph as the new men’s champions in the Bahamas Softball Federation was a result of a group of guys coming together from all across the island of Abaco, including its surrounding cays.

The Bulldogs left New Providence on Monday morning as the toast of the nationals over the weekend in the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex after they dismantled the Arnette’s Sporting Lounge Hitmen 2-0 in the bronze-medal game.

Two hours later, they came from behind to squeeze past Grand Bahama’s Elnet Excel Eliminators 5-3 in the gold-medal game.

“It feels good, wonderful. It’s been a hard fight. It was a hard-fought battle. But coming down here, we knew that we had the team to win it, but it was still a hard-fought battle,” McDonald said. “When you have the best out of Grand Bahama and the best out of New Providence, plus you have Spanish Wells there, it’s special.

“It’s special for us because we beat Alcott (Forbes) from New Providence, who is one of the best pitchers and to come back and beat Edney (Bethel) from Grand Bahama, who is the best pitcher, it couldn’t get any better than this. It was a hard-fought battle all the way.”

In the two years that McDonald has been able to assemble the team, they got to the final last year only to lose out to the Truckers from New Providence. But McDonald said the true testament for his team was in their ability to come back and work through all adversities this year to emerge as the new national champions.

““We stayed together. Everybody gelled together. We were like one big happy family,” he said. “We’re from all over Abaco. We have a guy from Cooper’s Town, Willard Gardiner, Mark and Jerrad Douglas are from Dundas Town, some of our guys are from the cays and some from Marsh Harbour. But we get together as a family and we play ball and we all gel together as a family.”

McDonald was particularly impressed with their ace pitcher Lyle Sawyer from Marsh Harbour, who took the team on his six-foot, five-inch frame and carried them through the pair of key matches on Sunday against the Hitmen and the Eliminators.

For his efforts, he earned the most valuable player award. “I just don’t know,” said Sawyer when asked how he was able to rally for the two marquee matches. “I fought hard for the team because they fought hard for me and we played it out.”

Not only did he use his towering frame to intimidate his batters, but he also struck fear in his rival pitchers, including Bethel as he went 1-for-4 in the clinch, driving in the tying run in the sixth and scoring the insurance run to seal his own fate and that of the Bulldogs.

Sawyer, however, refused to take all the credit.

“Fred came through with a big hit and that was all we needed,” he said. “Andrew got a hit, but we fell short on the throw out at the end. But we just got the big hits when we needed them.”

After surviving in their showdown with the Hitmen, who handed the Bulldogs a disappointing 4-0 defeat without Forbes in the opening game of the round robin on Thursday night, Sawyer said they knew once they got in sync, it would have been difficult for anybody to beat them - again.

They also lost a 4-3 encounter to the Flyers on Saturday night.

“This was a big one for Abaco. This is the first national title that Abaco has ever won,” Sawyer said. “I want everybody in Abaco to remember that. They need to be proud of this team because we worked very hard in all of our games in this tournament to pull it off.”

After watching the Bulldogs dismantle the Hitmen, the Eliminators were confident that they would prevail as champions. But manager Curtis Adderley admitted that they got surprised.

“I’m disappointed because we worked so hard to get here,” Adderley said. “The stress of playing three games yesterday really got to us because Edney (Bethel) was hurt. We tried to cover it up. The second pitcher, Desmond Bain, injured his leg in practice, so I believe that contributed to it. But we didn’t hit the ball. We didn’t hit the ball.”

When they return to Grand Bahama, Adderley said they don’t intend to hold any team meeting on the nationals. Instead, they will take some time off to recuperate before sitting down with their sponsor in a couple of months to try and devise a plan that will enable them to come back next year.

In the meantime, the Banker’s Field was left buzzing about the future of the Hitmen after their unexpected exit from the nationals in the bronze-medal game, even with the return of Forbes, who missed the first three days of competition because of a cruise vacation that was already planned.

While manager Darren (not Dwayne) Stevens took the blame for one major substitution that eventually folded their comeback bid, he noted that they just simply didn’t hit the ball at all in the tournament like they usually do. He noted that they will have to go back to the drawing board because it’s going to be hard to fathom the loss.