The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Arnette’s Sporting Lounge Hitmen are the New Providence Softball Association men’s back-to-back champions as they capitalised on a controversial play with ace Alcott Forbes drilling a game ending walk-off solo home run.

Forbes’ shot with one-out and on the first pitch in the bottom of the seventh sealed a 5-4 victory for the Hitmen as they completed a four game sweep over the Sting Truckers, whose fifth run was called off in the top of the inning, resulting in an ejection to catcher Jamal ‘Sarge’ Johnson.

“I came out here to do what I had to do to get my team a hit. Coming into the seventh inning, I cashed in at the right time,” said Forbes after he circled the bases and dove across the home plate amidst the team’s celebrations.

The Hitmen successfully defended their title, completing a four-game sweep over the pennant winning Sting Truckers. They put the icing on the series with a victory on Sunday night in the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

The victory came after the Hitmen took a commanding 3-0 lead as the league resumed play on Saturday night after the rain held up. In that game, the Hitmen pulled off an 11-9 win over the Truckers.

An emotional manager Darrel Stevens said the victory was dedicated to deceased Carl ‘Bang Bang’ Johnson - the NPSA named the postseason in his honour.

“First of all, I want to give God thanks,” said Stevens as he tried to hold back the tears. “After my good friend ‘Bang Bang’ died, we came together and we came out here and executed and did what we had to do to win.”

Hitmen 5, Truckers 4: With the game tied at 4-4 going into the bottom of the seventh, Forbes politely drilled a towering shot over the centre field fence from losing pitcher Thomas Davis for the walk off victory.

“I’m nursing my leg. I had an injury from the tournament in Abaco, but the heart of a lion is never showed,” Forbes said. “I had to come out here and make them play. The key is to stay focused and committed to the cause.”

The cause: the rights to represent the NPSA in the Bahamas Softball Federation’s National Round Robin Tournament this weekend at the same site against the championship teams from Abaco, Andros, Eleuthera and Grand Bahama.

“It’s no looking back from here. The key is to have fun and when you have fun, you execute the plays,” Forbes said.

However, Stevens said before they can take on the visiting teams, they will have to go back to practice this week and work on tightening up on their defence. “Once we can do that, we will be hard to beat,” he said.

The Truckers realised how tough the Hitmen were going to be after they blew a 2-0 lead in the second after Marvin ‘Tougie’ Wood ripped a two-run single to plate Ramon Storr and Garfield Bethel.

Arnette Sporting Lounge’s Angelo Dillet had a run-producing single and Rudy Fox a two-run single to go ahead 3-2.

Again, the Truckers struck for two more runs in the sixth, the first unearned by Jamal Johnson and the other on a RBI single from Ramon Johnson to score Orlando McPhee.

However, Rashad Seymour got on base on a two-out error in the sixth and eventually came home on another to tie the score, setting up the dramatic seventh inning.

After the loss, Truckers’ manager Perry Seymour said they went out and gave it their best shot.

“I’m going to give the Hitmen credit. They played good softball,” he said. “In the first game, I will take that loss, but in the last three games, it came down to mistakes. My team made too many mistakes for the veteran team that we are and that’s how we lost.

“Obviously, we had a mistake that took my team out of the game.”

After coming back from a year’s absence, Seymour said his team doesn’t have anything to prove.

“They took the championship away from us and they are the champions,” he said. “We will decide later if this team is going to come back next year or not.”

For the game, Fox went 2-for-2 with two RBI, Angelo Dillet was 2-for-4 with a RBI and a run scored and Alcott Forbes was 1-for-3 with a RBI, a homer and a run scored. Forbes also went the distance, giving up nine hits with eight strike outs. For the Truckers, Ramon Storr and Jamal Johnson were both 2-for-4 with a run scored and Olando McPhee 1-for-2 with a run scored. Thomas Davis suffered the loss, giving up right hits and striking out nine.

Hitmen 11, Truckers 9: Battery mate Angelo Dillet and Alcott Forbes had a leadoff single and error and with one out, they scored on an error and Martin Burrows’ RBI sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth to push their lead to 11-8 as they held on for the win.

Burrows finished with a 2-for-4 night with a RBI and a run and Forbes had just one hit with a run scored. Rudy Fox, replacing Khalid Curry in the fourth, had a lead off solo home run in the fourth when they extended their lead to 9-6.

Forbes came in the fifth to close the door as he replaced Duval Storr, who had given up the first eight runs to the Truckers over the first four innings. While Storr gave up seven hits with a strike out in his start, Forbes gave up two hits with four strike outs.

Thomas Davis went the distance for the loss, giving up nine hits and striking out seven.