The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

There was much cause for celebrations after the men's national softball team qualified for both the Central American and Caribbean Games and the Pan American Games.

The team is in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where they won their final game in the Group B round robin play on Wednesday with a 2-1 decision over Panama.

Although they finished with a 3-4 win-loss record, the Bahamas emerged as the top team in the ECAST.

They were denied the opportunity to participate in the playoffs after Guatemala got the final spot by virtue of winning their head-to-head match-up.

Team manager Perry Seymour, who is assisted by coaches Richard 'the Lion'Heart' Johnson and Hazier McDonald from Abaco, said the team was in a jubilant mood, but that turned to a bit of apprehension as they await the passing of Hurricane Maria.

"We all want to come home, but we know that we have to stay put," Seymour said. "There's no flights leaving for us to catch and even if there is, we don't have the funding to be able to change our flights. So we reluctantly will have to ride out the storm here."

Seymour said chef de mission Jeffery 'Beef' Henfield purchased a number of bread items and candles for the team to use just in case the worst comes their way over the next few days.

The team is not due to leave the Dominican Republic until Monday, one day after the tournament was projected to be completed on Sunday.

As a result of the pending weather conditions, Seymour said tournament officials postponed all games yesterday as the playoffs were put on hold.

He said they will wait to see what happens before they resume play. With the Bahamas out of the playoff picture, Seymour said they would really like to make the trip back home.

"There's nothing we can do right now, but wait," he said.

However, Seymour said they had a good time celebrating their qualifications for the two tournaments over the next two years.

"We had a chance to sit down and talk about what we did in the tournament and what we didn't do," he said. "We would have liked to have won a few more games, but we qualified and that is all that matters. Under the circumstances, I think we did as best as we could."

As they closed out play against Panama, Sherman Ferguson cracked a two-run homer to push the Bahamas up 2-1 in the third inning. Starting pitcher Alcott Forbes went on to hold Panama at bay. including leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to seal the deal.

"I think if we had the consistency on the offensive end, we would have done a lot better," Seymour said. "For about two games, Desmond was real hot , then over the last couple of games, Sherman Ferguson was hot. If we had that consistency in all of our games we could have made the playoffs."

Seymour said the youthful played very well, but he admitted that the lack of pre-tournament play showed in their cohesiveness. Now that they have qualified, he said as soon as they return home, they will continue to work out the squad, but will have an open trial for any other player who want to try and qualify for the team.

He also noted that the coaching staff will be looking at securing some funding from the public in their bid to get the team to play in some pre-tournament games so that they can be in a much better position to compete in the CAC and the Pan Am Games next year and 2019 respectively.

But for now, Seymour said their main concern is weathering the storm as it goes set to pass through the Dominican Republic after leaving its destruction behind in Puerto Rico.