The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Sting Truckers’ pitcher Thomas Davis didn’t waste anytime against the DK Smokers last night.

The slender pitcher served up a steady diet of fast balls as he struck out eight batters en-route to firing a perfect game (nobody got on base) in the Truckers’ 14-0 whitewashing of the Smokers as the New Providence Softball Association resumed its regular season in the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.

“I didn’t know it was a perfect game until my team-mates told me after the last out,” said Thomas, who had previously recorded a shutout against the Smokers and now he can add the perfect game to his ledger for the season.

“I really didn’t know that it was a perfect game. I know I always pitch well against this team, but I didn’t expect the shutout. I’m really happy with the performance.”

The final out came on a third strike called on DK’s first baseman Zhivargo Archer in the bottom of the fourth as the game was stopped via the mercy rule, pushing the Truckers’ front-running lead in the men’s division to 15-2. The loss dropped the Smokers to 3-12 for fourth place.

In the four innings, Thomas struck out seven of the nine Smokers’ batters at least once and he was able to mow down shortstop Philip Johnson twice. However, Thomas was not able to fan centre fielder Addie Finley, who flied out in his two at-bats to lead off the first and fourth and left fielder Marco Lightbourne, who grounded out to lead of the third.

“Every game we come out, we don’t get any calls, but we come out to play hard every game,” Archer said. “The Truckers supposed to be such a big team and they taking a lead off the bag and the umpires ain’t seeing it. We’re a young team. Every night we come out here to play and we get cheated. We’re not worried though, we will face them in the playoffs. We know that we could play better against them. We just didn’t hit the ball tonight. I really thought we were going to hit him.”

While Thomas held the Smokers’ bats in check, the Truckers struggled to hit the ball as well against losing pitcher Bradley Cash. They finished with just five hits.

Their first run in the top of the first inning came from Lamar Watkins on an error after he drew a lead-off walk. That was followed by seven runs in the second on just three hits.

First baseman Ramon ‘Shaky’ Johnson got the first hit of the game on a single after Eugene Pratt led off with a walk. With the bases loaded, Watkins, Orlando ‘Smithy’ McPhee and Marvin ‘Tougie’ Wood had consecutive RBI walks before catcher Jamal ‘Sarge’ Johnson had a RBI single to end the rally.

Then in the third, designated player Richard Bastian had the lone hit to lead another rally as the Truckers came up with five more runs. Except for a RBI ground out by right fielder Paron Rolle, the Truckers scored four times on either an error or a wild pitch, forcing Smokers’ manager Andy Percentie to bring in rookie Chris Brennen for Cash.

In the fourth, Cash had his share of difficulties in delivering the ball over the plate, but starting catcher Garfield Bethel greeted him with a triple to start the inning. Bethel then got out trying to score in a run down at the plate. Paron Rolle walked and got tagged trying to steal and pinch hitter Kirk Drakes ground out.

That enabled Thomas to come back in the bottom of the frame to put the cap on his perfect game, getting Addie Finley to fly out before he struck out Philip Johnson and Zhivargo Archer.

“It feels good,” Thomas said. “I didn’t go out expecting them to score a lot of runs against me. But it feels good to know that they didn’t score any.”