The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE US Virgin Islands saved their best game for the last, routing the Junior Baseball League of Nassau 11-1 to win the inaugural Freedom Farm 12-and-under International Invitational Tournament.

Yesterday at Freedom Farm, USVI got a masterful pitching performance from Daniel Pineda, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player and the best offensive player.

“We lost the first game 9-3, but I was just testing out my boys and so I wanted to save our best player Daniel in case we get to the championship,” said USVI manager Kiba ‘Son-Son’ Martin.

“So said, so done. I knew we had some jitters when we came and we lost to Freedom Farm white team. But in the last game of the tournament, we had to pray for Freedom Farm to lose to Grand Bahama so we could get into the championship.”

Martin said his prayers were answered when the Grand Bahama Little League nipped Freedom Farm white team 4-3. That enabled his USVI team to clinch the second spot in the final against the top ranked JBLN.

“We worked hard to get here. We had sponsors, we had to get passports for a lot of the players, we had water sales, soup sales and other fundraisers to get here,” Martin said.

“When the championship started, we jumped out to a 5-0 lead and I knew that it was going to be hard for JBLN to beat us because our pitcher was on his game. We didn’t want to go home without the championship trophy.”

Now that they have earned the title, Martin said they are going to Atlantis to celebrate before they head back home to the USVI today. The tournament will be completed in Grand Bahama when the Grand Bahama Little League takes on Legacy to determine who earned the third place finish.

But one thing was certain, Pineda, who had a total of 16 strike outs and posted a 2-0 win-loss record on the mound, while ripping six hits for the most in the tournament, was the tournament’s MVP as he led the USVI to victory. “I pitched a no-hitter and I feel good that I won the MVP,” said the 12-year-old seventh grader. “I told my team-mates lets just go out there and have some fun. “Last year we didn’t play so good, but this year, we came here and we performed very well. We hit the ball and we won 11-1 in the championship.”

Pineda finished the game with a 1-for-4 plate appearance, scoring two runs and driving in two more. Shortstop Erin Dorsett III was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and centrefielder De’Quan Duncan was 1-for-3 with two runs scored.

JBLN got their only run in the fifth inning, thanks to Kenny Moxey.

“Today we were totally out-matched,” said JBLN’s manager Javier Bowe. “The type of pitching that we saw today from the USVI we never seen that at our level at JBLN or national level.

“So realistically, my boys were scared. The speed he was pitching with, they have never seen it, so they were a bit tentative at the plate. That was what we really had an issue with today.”

Bowe said he already told JBLN president Jeff Walcott that they need to play against older guys to get them used to the faster pitcher when they face the international competition in the future.

Tournament director Clarence ‘CJ’ McKenzie said the tournament was an excellent one from start to finish with no team dominating until the USVI turned up the heat in the championship game.

“Every single team had a chance to get into the championship game and take home the top prize,” he said. “But we knew that the USVI was bringing a strong team. We met them last year when we travelled to Puerto Rico and from December when we gave them the green light about the tournament, they had started practicing. So we knew they were gearing up and getting ready.”

McKenzie said USVI was definitely prepared, especially after going through four airports to get here. They even brought down their own cheering fans with a number of parents and family members.

Freedom Farm founder Greg Burrows Sr said it was an excellent tournament. “I think we had an excellent tournament. The level of play was unbelievable,” he said. “The first day we had a lot of surprises. Things happened that we didn’t anticipate.

“We had a Freedom Farm team that was 10-11 in an 11-12 year old tournament that finished right up. The JBLN team played very well. Legacy and Grand Bahama did extremely well. Everybody was right in the hunt for the final four.”

Burrows, however, said the USVI won over everybody because they managed the arms of their players a lot better than everybody else. He said they had a little more firepower than the JBLN team and that is why they are the champions.

He noted that they are already in negotiations to continue the tournament every year, adding some more countries to come in to compete.

Results of games played in the tournament are as follows:

Thursday - Freedom Farm white team def. Freedom Farm blue team 5-4.

Friday - GBLL def. Freedom Farm blue team 10-8; Legacyu def. JBLN 5-4 amd Freedom Farm white team def. USVI 10-7.

Saturday - JBLN def. Freedom Farm blue team 3-1; USVI def. GBLL 8-3; Legacy def. freedom Farm white team 10-2; USVI def. Freedom Farm blue team 4-1; JBLN def. GBLL 6-2; Legacy def. USVI 2-1; Freedom Farm white team def. JBLN 9-6 and GBLL def. Legacy 6-3.

Sunday - Freedom Farm blue team def. Legacy 8-7; JBLN def. USVI 9-3 and GBLL def. Freedom Farm white team 4-3.

Third place - to be decided in Grand Bahama between GBLA and Legacy.

Championship game - USVI def. JBLN 11-1.