The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE DK Smokers had to rally from behind to pull off an 11-10 slug-fest over the Chances Mighty Mitts in the lone game played in the New Providence Softball Association on Saturday night.

The fans, who didn’t get to see the opening match between the Proper Care Pool Young Stars and the Electro Telecom Lady Hitters, were entertained in the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex as the Smokers came up with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to seal the deal.

It was the third time in the game that DK put three runs on the scoreboard in an inning to surge back out front, this time as they trailed 10-8 late in the ball game that lasted more than two hours.

The game made up for the default in the ladies’ opener as Proper Care Pool, managed by Stephen ‘Bishop’ Beneby, reportedly pulled out of the league over a dispute with the executive board, headed by president Godfrey ‘Gully’ Burnside.

With the win, Electro Telecom improved to 3-6 for fifth place, just one game behind the College of the Bahamas Lady Caribs (5-5) for the fourth spot in the playoff race.

As for the men’s encounter, the win was just the second for the Smokers, who are clinging onto the fourth spot st 2-5 ahead of the fifth place Mighty Mitts, who remained at the bottom of the pile at 1-9.

“I am a bit concerned because our guys have two ways of being focused,” said Andy Percentie, manager of the Smokers. “When we started to lose the game, we started to pick at each other. I often tell the guys that we are a young team, but not a rookie team, so we have to just keep focus and play ball because there’s no I in team and so we have to learn to encourage each other.”

With still a long way to go before the playoffs are contested around September, Percentie said if their pitchers can do a better job on the mound, their defence will also improve.

“The pitchers are throwing too many pitches to the batters. Once we can limit the amount of pitches per batter, we will be better down the stretch because we are capable of playing good defence,” he said.

Jeffery Woodside had to dig down deep after he came in the game in the first inning, replacing starter Bradley Cash as he had to work out of a five-run jam to eventually secure the win.

With the bases loaded with one out in the top of the seventh, Woodside managed to strike out Kenneth Curry and force Michael Ingraham to pop up to D’Kyle Rolle at second to end the ball game.

“Our defence didn’t play up to expectation, but we still had a chance to win the game,” said Mighty Mitts’ manager Alphonso ‘Chicken’ Albury. “We had one or two calls in the end where we felt that it took us out of position to pull it off.

“We made a couple of costly mistakes and they ended up winning. It was a hard loss for us because I really counted that as a win for us moving forward towards making the playoffs. We have to play them a couple more times, so we have to be better prepared if we want to make the playoffs.”

The Mighty Mitts, the only team to beat the perennial kingpins Sting Truckers in their return to the league this year, had leads of 5-3 and 9-7, but they couldn’t hold off the Smokers.

While Woodside worked on a two-hit, nine strike out performance for the win, David Nathan went the distance, giving up eight hits with six strike outs for the loss.

In the key sixth inning that made the difference in the game, D’Kyle Rolle led off with a single. After moving to second on Gee Bethel’s ground out, Rolle stole third base and he came home on an error that placed Dino Sweeting on first.

Sweeting scored on an RBI single from Zhivargo Archer and after he moved to second on another error and stole third, Archer scampered home with their final run on a wild pitch.

Rolle got on base on three of his four plate appearances, the first two on walks and he scored all three times. Archer went 2-for-4 with two RBI, Sweeting had a pair of walks with a single, scoring twice and Woodside helped his own cause with a three-run home run in the third.

Kenneth Curry and Chris McPhee had the only two hits for the Mighty Mitts, scoring two and one run respectively. A second run for McPhee was attributed to pinch runner Chris Wallace.