The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

The St Augustine's College Big Red Machine placed four teams in the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools softball championships and three of those teams got their title runs off to favourable starts.

The junior girls defeated the Queen's College Comets 7-5, the junior boys took a 6-1 win over the NCA Crusaders and the senior boys also won 15-4 over the Crusaders in game one of each series yesterday at the Freedom Farm Complex.

In the senior girls' division, the Comets prevented the sweep with their 5-2 win over the Big Red Machine.

In the girls' game, SAC took a 4-0 lead in the first inning and eventually led 6-0 through four innings. The Comets would rally late with their first run of the game in the fourth inning before they racked on another two in the fifth.

Big Red Machine head coach Vernice Russell said once the team performs the way they should at the plate, she expects them to close out the series. "We came out strong executing plays as we had planned to do. Our pitcher was pitching strong to start out with and we dominated in the first four innings.

"In the last inning we struggled a bit, but our team is one with heart and they were able to pull the win off," she said. "Ultimately we came out and did what we were supposed to do. We have to come out again continuing to hit, hitting is key, that's what we are good at so we have to keep that going."

The boys' game was a defensive struggle for most of the afternoon before SAC broke the game open in the third and fourth innings.

The Crusaders struck first with a run in the top half of the first inning in what turned out to be their only score of the game.

SAC took the lead for good when Tyler Munroe hit an RBI single for a 2-1 score. NCA's pitcher Norman Basden struck out two of the next three hitters he faced in the inning.

Neither team would score in the second. Munroe retired the side in order, two pop ups and a ground out and the NCA pitcher would do the same with a strike out and two ground outs.

SAC defence again retired the side in order again in the third.

With two outs, Big Red Machine added three runs to put the game away. After an RBI double to make the score 3-1, Munroe followed with a two run in the park home run to put the game away.

Base-running errors by NCA left two on and stifled a possible rally.

An RBI single from Joshua Miller produced the game's final run.

"We were focused and we were hitting the fastball," said SAC coach Michael Adderley.

"We have always had problems with the lob, but as long as we keep up with the fastball we will be able to hit. Our defence was pretty good so we were able to stop them from collecting any runs."

Game two in each series is set for Wednesday afternoon at the Freedom Farm Complex.