International softball at Roger’s Stadium
Good evening, I’m James Adderly and welcome to this edition of Sports Monday. Three Central American nations gathered at the Rogers Stadium over the weekend, for an international invitational presented by the Belize Softball Federation, in celebration of the induction of Charles Solis and Pat Bennett into the International Hall of Fame.
And here, flying high along with the Sub Umbra Floreo are the flags of El Salvador and Nicaragua. We join the action in the top of the first inning, featuring Nicaragua against Belize with Martha Morales on the mound and bases are loaded. As number eight, Josephine Flowers smashes this single right up the middle to bring Salazar and Belisle home. Belize goes up two-zip.
In the bottom of the 1st, Mary Flowers comes out smoking on the mound and the first batter she faces, goes down on strikes. Up steps Wendy Molina and she gets mowed down by Mary. And then she gets Esther Morales to pop up to 1st baseman Shaline Zabaneh to get out of the inning.
With a 5-nil lead in the top of 4th, Nericia Rowland smacks one through the infield, 2 more runs comes in as Belize goes on to take the opener 16-1.
Now lets join the male game between Belize and El Salvador. It’s the top of the 1st, when this pitch gets away from Charles Solis and hits Rafael Frias in the head – mercifully, he does get up and stays in the ballgame. However, the next batter, Salvador Fernandez smashes to Flowers at 3rd and he throws to first, for Michael Middleton to record the out. Folks give nuff respect to Julio Lixamy, the Salvadoran pitcher, as he mows down Dion Richards, goes down on strikes. Michael Middleton then gets victimized by a rising fastball and Lixamy strikes out the side when he gets Derrick Jones to swing through the air.
Folks its a scoreless ballgame in the top of the six, until Solis leaves this pitch hanging to Rafael Frias, who takes it all the way out of the park for two runs. This rattles Solis, who loads up the bases and then walks Erich Fumes for run number three of the ballgame, for which he gets chased in favour of Shelton Sutherland.
The first pitch by Sutherland should be an easy out, but Middleton misplayed and just like that it’s a 4-zip score in favour of El Salvador. Team Belize mounts a rally in the bottom of the 7th. Michael Middleton makes amends for his defensive error with this in the park home run. Floyd Flowers then hits Lixamy hard down the left field line to bring home two runs, but that was all she wrote, as Salvador takes the 4-3 big “W”.
Meanwhile folks, this ain’t the carnival season yet, but this display of colour and motion has the fans going between games.
The Salvador female team did not fare as well as their male counterparts in what turned out to be a pitching duel. Martha Lizama was pretty impressive in the opening inning. However, Kenisha Sutherland was just as stellar limiting the visitors to one hit in the 1st inning. In the top of the 5th, with one run in, Salvador looks for more when this throw to 3rd base produces and out which enrages the visitors, but the umpire prevails with the call.
Belize gets its 2nd run in the top of the 6th, off this fastball to take a 2-1 lead. El Salvador ties the score at 2 a piece in the bottom of the 6th off this fielder’s choice that scores the runner from 3rd. Raymond Lashley then shows his displeasure with Kenisha’s performance, by replacing her with Mary Flowers. It’s all tied up at 2 going into the top of the 7th, when El Salvador commits back to back errors to give Belize the lead run. This fielder’s choice then gives Belize a 4-2 cushion. Salvador does come back with this run in the bottom of the 7th, but Mary Flowers would hold the fort to eek out the 4-3 big “W”.
A quick synopsis of the tournament shows that Belize female team did not loose a game in 5 outings, the male team did not win a game from the same number of appearances and the Nicaragua’s female team failed to pick up a “W”.
Turning to the football scene, Belize fell 2-1 to Guatemala in its World Cup qualifying match. Certainly wasn’t the blow out most people feared, but we did lose the ballgame. Our national dignity was not trampled upon. Incidentally, April 16th brings up the away game with El Salvador, which will be hosted at the People’s Stadium against the National Football Team of Belize. Of course, May 21st our national team travels to Los Angeles for game two with Guatemala. We are going to keep you posted.
