The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas men’s national softball team suffered a double whammy yesterday at the Pan American Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The team dropped a 8-3 decision to Mexico in their opener and then lost 15-2 to Argentina in their second game to push their win-loss record to 2-4 with just one game left in the round robin of Group B today against Panama.

In their game against Mexico, Lyle Sawyer from Abaco pitched up to the fifth inning with the Bahamas leading 3-1. Thomas Davis came in to close the door, but the Bahamas ended up losing.

Wayne “Pappy’ Johnson had a hit with two runs batted in (RBI) and Angelo Dillet also got a hit.

And against Argentina, Martin Burrows was tagged with the loss.

Philip Johnson and Angelo Dillet both had two hits and were responsible for the Bahamas’ only two runs.

“We had one that should have won and one that we were using to get ready for tomorrow’s game,” team manager Perry Seymour told The Tribune.

Against Mexico, Seymour said they held a 3-1 lead going into the fifth inning, but they had a couple of errors that pushed their opponents ahead and the Bahamas just fell flat after that.

“A batter got hit by a pitch and they had two bunts that we couldn’t field,” Seymour said. “They then got a hit and another error and that hurt us. We just fell a part after that.”

Coming off the loss against Mexico, Seymour said the coaching staff, made up of Richard ‘the Lion-Heart’ Johnson and Haziel McDonald from Abaco, decided to use more of the rookie players to give them the opportunity to play.

“If we were still in the game at the late part of the game, we would have put in more of the veterans,” he said. “But I must give credit to the rookies. They did okay, but it was a game more of a sacrificial lamb. We just wanted to give everybody the opportunity to play.”

With just one more game left against Panama today, Seymour said the Bahamas’ chances of qualifying from the tournament has been ruined, but he said they are still hoping that they will qualify for the 2019 Pan American Games by virtue of being one of the top English-speaking Caribbean countries in the tournament.

“We have a good chance of winning the top spot against the English-speaking Caribbean countries and once we win tomorrow against Panama, that is a definite,” he said. “We will only have to wait on Aruba to play their final two games tomorrow to see where we will end up.”

Looking at the competition and the way the team played, Seymour said the Bahamas just needs to get in more tournaments.

“In talking to some of the managers here, they go to a number of tournaments before they come to the big tournament,” he said.. “Right now, we are probably the only country that come to this tournament, not having a chance to play together as a national team.”

On their return home, if the team qualifies for the next tournament, Seymour said they will look at ways of raising funds so that the team can go to one or two tournaments to play before they go to the Pan Am.

The team will definitely have to win their final round robin game against Panama today. If they are successful, Seymour said they can get prepared to put in the extra work to raise the necessary funding to get some more exposure as a national team over the next year to get ready.