The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas women's national team went on a scoring rampage as they blanked Israel in their opening game of the XII Junior World's Softball World Championships in Clearwater, Florida.

The team, managed by Stephen 'Bishop' Beneby, pulled off a 10-0 win over Israel to post a 1-0 win-loss record. It was the second straight loss for Israel who got stopped 22-0 in three innings by the top ranked Japanese team earlier in the day.

Shane Albury, one of the coaches, said the team performed exceptionally well.

"We feel good about the team. The team played very well," said Albury, who coached from third base while D'Kyle Rolle coached from first base.

"We had one or two errors but I must say, for the most part, the team gave a tremendous effort. With this being the first game, to get our first win in this type of tournament, we have to be extremely pleased with their performances."

Albury, however, said the final outcome was not surprising.

"As coaches, we looked at the team earlier this morning and we saw one or two things that they are capable of doing," he said. "We were not surprised that we put up that many runs on that team."

The Bahamas scored four runs in the bottom of the second, three more in the third and another in the fourth to stop the game via the 10-run rule.

Valencia Gibson was the winning pitcher as she posted a 0.00 earned run average with four hits and three strike outs in the 14 batters she faced in the four innings. Stuchevki Alisa gave up 14 hits, 10 earned, while walking four and striking out two in suffering the loss with a 19.09 ERA.

Centrefielder Denisha Woodside, as the lead-off batter, was a perfect 3-for-3 with three runs scored, shortstop Kendalia Turner was 2-for-2 with three runs, first sacker Sari Albury was also 2-for-2 with four runs batted in (RBI) and one scored, catcher Dachye Stubbs was 1-for-2 with two RBI and a run scored, left fielder Danbasjah Hield was 1-for-3 with a RBI and second sacker Shawnte Curtis was also 3-for-3 with a RBI and a run scored.

Other players in the starting lineup were third sacker Altavia Hall, right fielder Aliyah Ferguson and designated player Rhema Otabor.

Monet Cartwright, Sophia Cartwright, Antonia Cooper, Ramona Hanna, Eilyah Johnson and Mia Turner are other members on the team.

At 9am today, the Bahamas will be back in action against Brazil before they play a 4pm double header against Peru.

Their fourth game will be played at 11am Wednesday against Australia. And on Thursday, they will close out their round robin play after taking on Japan at 6:30pm.

"We're looking forward to some good games and hopefully some more wins," Albury said. "We have a really tough bracket, but from what I've seen, we will have some wonderful games against Japan, Brazil, Peru and the Netherlands.

"We're looking forward to the challenge and we're looking forward to some good softball."