The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Arnette’s Sporting Lounge Hitmen won the New Providence Softball Association men’s pennant. Now they are hoping that they can go all the way and win the championship title as well.

The Hitmen’s quest for the double title became a reality on Saturday night at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex as they held off the pesky Miller’s Rams 9-7 to wrap up a three-game sweep in their semifinal sudden death playoffs.

The Hitmen will now have to wait for their opponents for the final that could be determined tonight if the Andre Gardiner Construction Buccaneers can prevail with a victory over the Mighty Mitts in their half of the postseason.

“From training camp, this was our goal. Now we have to go into the championship and finish it off,” said Hitmen’s coach Darren Stevens. “We played well so far, but we know that there is still a long way to go.”

As they prepare for the finals, Stevens said his Andre Gardiner Construction squad will have to play better than they did against the Rams.

“The playoffs and the regular season are two different things,” Stevens said. “We are into the finals and so our level has gone up to another level. We’re not going to take any prisoners. We will be ready.”

In the first two innings, the Hitmen put four runs each on the scoreboard on two and three hits respectively for an 8-2 lead. But rather than going on to stop the Rams in abbreviated fashion, they had to go the distance.

“The team’s performance was a little lacklustre,” he said. “We played to the calibre of the other team. I tried to encourage the guys to pick up their intensity, but things happen. We are just glad to be in the championship.”

The Hitmen only scored one more run in the fourth, but the Rams came up with one in the third and fourth and two more in the fifth to make it a game. In the fourth, they greeted Alcott Forbes, who came from second to replace starter Martin Burrows.

“We could have played a whole lot better than we did, but I think we just played to their level,” Forbes said.

“If we had stepped it up to our style of play, I think we would have been able to finish off this game a whole lot earlier. But we are happy that we got rid of them and now we are into the championship. We just have to get ready, hopefully for the Buccaneers. We know we will have to step it up because they are going to be tough.”

Hosea Hilton went 2-for-4 with a RBI single in the first and a two-run single in the second. He finished with three RBI and two runs scored. Sherman Ferguson was also 2-for-4 with two runs scored and Jameko Sands had a two-run single with a run scored.

For the Rams, Dino Sweeting had a single with two runs scored and both D’Kyle Rolle and Rashad Richardson had a single with a run scored. Richardson also had two RBI.

Back after sitting out game two because of his ejection in game one, losing pitcher Jeffery Woodside admitted that they should have at least won one of the games, but things didn’t work out in their favour.

“Their team was just better than us tonight and we got beat,” Woodside said. “It’s disappointing, but we’re a young team coming up. We proved that we’re not any pushover against the veteran guys. We lost, but it was a good game.”