The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ALCOTT Forbes felt he was not as sharp as he wanted to be, but his performance for the pennant winning C&S Hitmen was good enough to overpower the Chances Mighty Mitts as they completed a two-game sweep in the best-of-three playoffs to advance to the New Providence Softball Association’s (NPSA) best-of-five championship series.

After firing a one-hitter with eight strikeouts in a 12-0 whitewashing in game one of the series before the NPSA took a break for the passing of Hurricane Matthew, Forbes came back in the aftermath on Saturday at the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex and just missed out on another attempt for a perfect game, giving up one hit with 12 strikeouts in an 11-0 blanking to complete the two-game sweep.

Now they are preparing to face the defending champions, Commando Security Truckers, in the NPSA championship this weekend. The Truckers rolled into the final by sweeping the BTC Warriors, taking game two on Saturday with a defaulted win. The Warriors, who lost the game before before the hurricane came, did not show up on Saturday. Condolences were extended to BTC’s siblings Sherman Ferguson and Jeffery Woodside, whose mother passed away.

Hitmen 11, Mighty Mitts 0

In another masterful performance from the mound, Alcott Forbes was working on a perfect game with nine strikeouts through the first three innings. But trailing 11-0 going into the bottom of the fourth before it got too dark, pinch hitter Daryl Dorsett broke it up when he led off with a shot to right centrefield for a stand up triple. But he died there as Forbes bowed down and fanned the next three Chances’ batters he faced to complete the shutout.

“I still have plenty work to put in,” Forbes said. “The manager wasn’t impressed. I’m really not in the shape that I should be in at this time, but by the time of the championship, I will be there.”

As if his performance didn’t speak for itself, Forbes said after he gave up the triple, he did not want to let the shutout go down the drain too.

“Those things happen when you become complacent,” he said. “When you take things for granted, those things happen. but it keeps you honest. I won’t say I appreciate it, but it happens. It made me tougher and stronger and I was able to close out even stronger in those types of games.”

While Forbes held his own on the mound, his team-mates provided all of the offence that they needed to supplement his performance, producing a run on a hit in the first inning, two unearned runs on no hits in the second, seven more runs on three hits in the third and another run on no hit in the fourth as they got past losing pitcher Victor Grant.

Forbes also led their attack by going 2-for-3 with three runs batted in and a run scored. First baseman Hosea Hilton got hit by a pitch in two of his three trips to the plate and had two runs scored, one credited to pinch runner Philip Johnson. Catcher Michael Ingraham walked in two of his three plate appearances and scored twice and third baseman Rashad Seymour was 1-for-3 with two runs scored.

“Our goal this season was to win the pennant, the championship and then the round robin,” said Hitmen’s manager Darren Stevens. “I’ll take the sweep because we’re getting closer to achieving our goals.”

Now that they are back in the NPSA final, Forbes said their only goal is to win the title. “The Truckers know the fight that we bring. I think they are scared. They know we are coming,” he said.

Stevens said when you have a “bunch of savvy guys, who don’t give up”, it’s easy to get ready for the big dance in the final.

“The Truckers know that and so I expect a fight from them,” Stevens said. “They have that championship pedigree with so many players who have been there before. But we have a bunch of young fellows who are hungry and we are determined to achieve the objective that we have set from the beginning of the season.”

For the Mighty Mitts, it was the end of their season but manager Alphonso ‘Chicken’ Albury said they hope to regroup for next year.

“The team was flat and we lost some of our players to college and Saturday is a day when some of our players had to go to work,” said Albury, who had to play first base. “This is not a normal game time for us, but we had to play due to the hurricane. The Hitmen are a very good team and I have to commend them. I think it’s going to be a good series. My team is very young, so hopefully we can pick up a few more players and we will be able to turn things around next season.”

While it was surprising that BTC did not show up to play game two on Saturday, Truckers second baseman Olando McPhee said they will take the win and get ready for the Hitmen.

“We were looking to play against them so we can try and get boosted up for the championship,” McPhee said. “There’s no doubt that we were going to beat them, but things turned out the way that it turned out and they didn’t show up.”

McPhee said they know that the Hitmen will be ready to play, so they have to bring their A game.

“We’re going out there to win,” McPhee said. “Our team is looking good, very good. We’re not concerned about them at all.”

The Truckers and the Hitmen will begin the best-of-five series on Saturday with the winner advancing to play in the Bahamas Softball Federation’s National Round Robin during the first weekend in November.