The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

It will come down to one final game tonight for all the marbles as the New Providence Softball Association concludes its 2017 Godfrey 'Gully' Burnside best-of-seven championship series for the ladies' division.

Starting around 8pm in the Banker's Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex, the defending champions and pennant winning Johnson's Lady Truckers will put it all on the line against arch-rivals Sunshine Auto Wildcats in the seventh and deciding game.

The winner will advance to the Bahamas Softball Federation's 2017 Rozina Taylor National Round Robin Championships this weekend at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex where they will join the men's champions C&S Hitmen in representing the NPSA. On Friday night, the Lady Wildcats stayed alive to push the series to limit as they pulled of a 6-4 win over the Lady Truckers to even the series at 3-3. But after taking a 2-0 lead at the beginning of the series, Johnson's manager Mario Ford said he was disappointed that they didn't finish of Sunshine Auto.

"We should have closed this series out a long time after we took that 2-0 lead," he said. "We got too relaxed, allowed them to come back and win the next two. Then we came back and we played flawless softball, but the tide changed in the last game. They played well, they hit the ball and we left too many runners on base.

"Like I told them, we have to go out there and fight. It's now down to one game, so we are going to go out there (tonight) and we are going to fight. We will do what we need to do to come out on top."

Ford, however, is confident that the Lady Wildcats, managed by Anthony Bullard, are not just going to roll over and play dead.

"I have the confidence that we can do it. I have the confidence that w can put the bat on the ball and score the runs. If we can make the adjustment and play sound defense, we can do it. The games that we lost, we didn't hit the ball. But if we can be more discipline at the plate, we can do it."

If there is any concern for his Lady Truckers going into the game, Ford said it would be having the starters arrive on time so that he can out in the proper line-up to counter what the Lady Wildcats will throw at them.

Ford is also hoping that ace Marvell Miller, who works in Long Island, will be available to pitch, if not he will have to go with Diva Burrows as they match up against the Wildcats' mainstay Mary 'Cruise' Sweeting.

For Sweeting, who has been the workhorse for the Lady Wildcats, its a familiar territory that they've been through, having lost out to the Lady Truckers last year. But this year, she said they are hungry to win their first title in four years.

"I feel pretty good. We feel extremely confident considering that we were down 2-0 and now we are into game seven," she lamented. "Everybody is hyper and ready. We just have to start the game by putting runs and more runs on the scoreboard. We have to come out the gate and play like we want it.

"Once we can come out and play the way we know we are capable of playing, we are not going to try and give this team anything. We are going to go all out. We want the title back. We are hungry. We let it slip away last year, but we are going to get what is ours."

As the stabilizer on the mound, Sweeting said it was good that to get the couple days rest over the weekend instead of having to pitch every night.

"One more to go, so I'm going to push it," she projected. "Now they are in trouble."

With the series deadlocked at 3-3, it will come down to who want it the most tonight.