The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH a younger team made up of players from New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco, manager Godfrey’ Gully’ Burnside is confident that the Bahamas will perform very well at the Central American and Caribbean Games qualifying tournament in Cali, Colombia.

When the tournament takes place April 23 to May 3, the Bahamas will be led in part by pitcher Alcott Forbes and Abaco’s Lyle Sawyer, catcher Angelo Dillette, infielders Jamal ‘Sarge’ Johnson and Grand Bahama’s Quintin Rolle and outfielder Sherman Ferguson.

“We are in transition. We are taking a young team. As you noticed some of the main players are not there, so we have a lot of guys who are confident and won’t have to be looking over their shoulders, said Burnside, who will travel with coaches Perry Seymour and Martin Burrows Sr.

“I’m really impressed with the team. We have three young guys from Grand Bahama and we have three players from Abaco, including pitchers Lyle Sawyer and Tyler Russell. This is the direction that I spoke about last year. We have to move in the direction of preparing the younger guys to take us to the world ranking again. We are hoping that the younger guys can get the job done.”

Based on what he has seen from the performances of the players in the Bahamas Softball Federation games and in their practices, Burnside said he’s confident that the Bahamas will win the tournament and go on to the CAC Games in Veracruz, Mexico, November 15-30 and make some noise as well.

“I believe that once this team can develop its chemistry at the qualifier and win the tournament, we can definitely go on and win a medal at the CAC Games,” Burnside projected.

“We just have to get our offence together. We have been getting good pitching and defence, but we have not been getting the timely hits and the execution of the bunts.

“This team can do that. We have finally gotten some players from Abaco and we have three from Grand Bahama. We were trying to get one or two from Spanish Wells, but those guys are into fishing right now. So we still have some Family Island players who can make a contribution to the team, especially pitcher Lyle Sawyer.”

• Selected following the trials held for the past few weeks at the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex are the following:

Pitchers - Alcott Forbes, Lyle Sawyer (Abaco), Thomas Davis and Tyler Russell (Abaco)

Catchers - Angelo Dillette and Grant Albury (Abaco)

Infielders - Jamal Johnson - Wayne ‘Eric Pappi’ Johnson, Ken Wood, Richard Bain, Rashad Seymour, Quintin Rolle (Grand Bahama) and Keel Pinder (Grand Bahama).

Outfielders - Sherman Ferguson, Lamar Watkins, Addie Finley and Marcus Holbert (Grand Bahama)

Manager - Godfrey Burnside Sr

Coaches - Perry Seymour and Martin Burrows Sr

Reserves - Garfield Bethel, Jordan Gibson, Andrew Albury, Larry Russell Jr, Philip Johnson, Carlos Pratt, Zhivago Archer and Martin Burrows Jr.

“As for the reserves, what we have said is that in the past, if players can’t go because of injury or work commitments, we have the players available to readily call upon to fill in,” Burnside said.

“If our fundraising goes very well, then we will look at the possibility of taking one or two of these reserves for the exposure.”

The team is scheduled to continue its workout sessions every Tuesday and Thursday starting at 6:30pm and on Saturday at 8:30am at the Banker’s Field.