The Tribune

THE Bahamas completed their stint at the Caribbean Baseball Cup in the sixth position. The home team fell to the Dominican Republic 4-1 last night at the Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium.

The championship game tonight will feature Curaçao versus the US Virgin Islands (USVI). 

Curaçao knocked off the defending champions 2-1 in a nail-biting contest to advance to the final round of competition.

USVI punched their ticket to the finals after defeating St Maarten 10-5 in yesterday’s showdown.

Bahamas vs Dominican 

Republic

After securing a win against the USVI in the tournament opener, The Bahamas wrapped up competition with a 1-4 win/loss record in the tournament.  Team manager Geron Sands talked about the overall play of the team at the regional baseball tournament.

“We didn’t get the outcome that we wanted. However, I saw some bright spots for Team Bahamas. The bright spots for Team Bahamas is that the guys really want to be here and we want to build this programme so we can have better outcomes than what we saw this week…We have to work on some pitching a little more and we have to get these guys together a little more. If we could get the team together a little more I am sure that will help out. No excuses, we came out and we played and did what we had to do. We didn’t get what we wanted but we will be back next time,” he said.

The Bahamas got on the board first in the second after Terrell Outen singled, scoring a run.

The Dominican Republic’s Francisco Gonzalez nailed a right-field home run to put the visiting team in the lead 3-1 at the top of the third inning.

Christopher Rodriguez was the winning pitcher for the Dominican Republic. He allowed zero hits and zero runs over 3.2 innings while striking out three batters and walking none.

Teagan Coleby pitched in four innings for Team Bahamas. He allowed five hits, one run, struck out three batters and walked three. 

Outen went 1-for-2 for The Bahamas and led the team with a lone RBI.

Franscico Gonzalez, Noel Amaro, Randy Bravo and Luis Delano Taveras all had two hits apiece for the victors. 

Gonzalez went 2-for-3 in the contest and racked up three RBIs along the way. 

Sands expressed that there needs to be more emphasis placed on pitching for Team Bahamas going forward but overall he was pleased with the play of the younger players on this stage.

“Those guys actually played pretty well. They impressed the Bahamian people this week as they played. The whole idea is to get those guys up. They are going to be the future of the national team. The World Baseball Classic comes every three to four years and the Olympics are coming into play so we have to get these guys playing to be ready for when that time comes,” he said. 

Championship day begins at 3pm with the bronze medal game. The final game of competition starts at 7pm tonight.