The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE men’s national softball team fell into a scoring slump and failed to qualify for the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Playing in the CAC Qualifying Tournament in Cali, Colombia, last week, the Bahamas nipped Panama 3-2 in their opener, but reeled off three consecutive losses to finish at the bottom of the pile in Group A at 1-4.

The Bahamas went on to lose 5-2 to Mexico in their second game, got blanked 10-0 by Mexico in game three, dropped a 5-4 decision to Aruba and closed out the round robin play by losing 3-1 to Guatemala.

At the end of the round robin, both the Bahamas and Aruba failed to advance to the playoffs and a chance to qualify for the CAC Games in Veracruz, Mexico, in November.

Venezuela joined Dominica (out of Group B) as the only two undefeated teams. However, in wrapping up the week-long tournament, Guatemala whitewashed Dominica 5-0 to eventually win the top qualifying spot for the CAC Games.

Bahamas team manager Godfrey ‘Gully’ Burnside said in an interview from Colombia before they made their trek back home on Sunday that the team just simply blew a couple of games, including their counter against Guatemala that knocked them out of contention of qualifying for Mexico.

“We had a simple double play that we didn’t turn and, as a result, Guatemala ended up scoring two runs,” Burnside said. “We should have made the double play.”

There was some concern that the team lacked too many experienced players, but Burnside justified that decision by saying that the Bahamas Softball Federation is going through a transitional period and they want to infuse more of the younger players.

“Obviously, there are going to be some more changes to solidify the national team,” he said. “Certain players we didn’t bring because the players didn’t have the confidence playing behind them. We wanted to give the younger players the opportunity to play, but unfortunately, they didn’t produce.”

Burnside included players from both Grand Bahama and Abaco and he indicated that he will recommend to the BSF to add even more players in the future so that they can complete the puzzle for the national team.

This year, Burnside added pitchers Lyle Sawyer and Tyler Russell from Abaco to go with ace pitcher Alcott Forbes. He also relied heavily on Quintin Rolle, a 16-year-old high school student from Grand Bahama, to bolster the infield that included Jamal Johnson, Wayne ‘Eric’ Johnson and Richard Bain. The outfield was led by Sherman Ferguson and Lamar Watkins.

Burnside travelled along with coaches Perry Seymour and Martin ‘Pork’ Burrows.