Kulture Yabra are comeback kids
Kulture Yabra and Juventus rough it out on the barracks, while Flames, Falcons and Duurly?s Cristal reign supreme at the Joan Garbutt stadium in Esperanza.
Good Evening, with the May third edition of Sports Monday, I am Patrick Jones.
The M.C.C. Grounds in Belize City was the scene of one of a fiercely contested match between league leaders Juventus of Orange Walk and the defending B.P.F.L. champion Kulture Yabra. At kick off, both teams appeared to be feeling out each other. But in the seventeenth minute of play, Daniel Thomas puts Juventus in the lead with this first goal of the ball game. And it?s a lead that the team from Sugar city would take to the locker room at the end of the first half.
While the game was a hard fought duel between two teams fortified with some of the best football talents in the country, the level of physical contact at times resembled a wrestling match as we see Deon Frazer on the receiving end of some major pressure from Juventus. Now watch the elbow to the face on this play as David Trapp gets taken down hard on this particular play. Neither incident appears to have been out of order as referee David Jones keeps the game going.
Christopher Hendricks gave Juventus their second goal at the seventieth minute of play and it appears that Kulture Yabra was done for the day. But as they say in sports, it?s never over until it?s over. Four minutes after Juventus? second goal, Norman Nunez shook the net on the other side of the field, and Kulture Yabra had new life. But with time running out, the defending champs knew they had to keep the pressure up. At the eighty-second minute of the game, Norman Nunez got another opportunity to score and delivered the equalizing goal and the stadium goes wild. The game ended in a 2-2o tie, and the man of the afternoon was definitely Norman Nunez whose late game heroics saved the day for Kulture Yabra.
In other B.P.F.L. games over the weekend, Sagitun christened newly promoted Delta Sport to the Regent Insurance Cup Tournament with a 1-zip defeat out at the Michael Ashcroft Stadium on Saturday night. Also on Saturday night in the nation?s capital, the Builders Hardware Bandits sent Griga United back to Dangriga with a 2-nil defeat. And out at the Calcutta Field on Sunday, the home team fell to the visiting San Pedro Sea Hawks 3-1.
Turning to softball…Belize?s national women?s champions B.T.L. gave the country reason to celebrate this Labour Day weekend as they took on the rest of Central America and came out on top. The third Champion of Champions tournament was staged in Guatemala City and featured Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Marte Lotin of El Salvador was the defending two-time champion going in, but B.T.L. was determined that the title would not go to San Salvador for a third straight year. After dominating the tournament, beating host country Guatemala, then Nicaragua and Honduras by some lopsided scores, it was the moment of truth on Sunday morning when B.T.L. took to the diamond for their second match of the tournament against Marte Lotin. It was a nail biter right down to the bottom of the seventh inning. Belize jumped out to an early two run lead. But Kenrene Gillett couldn?t hold down the Salvadoran offence. She was quickly replaced by Mary Flowers who fared no better in the relief role. The ball was given to Kenisha Sutherland next who effectively shut down the Salvadoran offence and allowed her team to chip away at the Marte Lotin defence until they tied the game in the sixth inning. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with veteran utility player Delcie Franklin Lizama on third, the unthinkable happened. The Salvadoran catcher misplayed a pitch from Martha Lizama and the wild pitch allowed Lizama to scamper across the plate and in the process gave Belize bragging rights to being the best in softball in all of Central America.
Marte Lotin finished second losing only to Belize and Guatemala, while Honduras was winless in the round robin. On the offensive side, Belize scored an impressive ninety-four runs, while giving up only thirty-five.
In the end, Kenisha Sutherland is credited with the most victories of the tournament, while Kenrene Gillett won strike out title. B.T.L.?s core players, Martha Rhys and Norecia Rowland, were also singled out for individual awards. First baseman Kimberly Vacarro earned the most stolen bases, while centre fielder Lydia Cacho won the batting title and was voted tournament M.V.P. We say congratulations to all the players for their gold medal performance in this Central American club championship.
Out west in Cayo, the 2004 Marathon which was suspended last month due to rain came to its natural conclusion on Saturday at the Joan Garbutt Stadium in Esperanza.
Cindy Dawson of Ontario Flames took the mound in the championship game in the B Division against Marilyn Gordon and the Unitedville SQ. Dawson gets the first batter swinging… Two batters later, Dawson repeated the feat and the momentum of the game was set, as the Flames were in full command on this Saturday morning.
Marilyn Gordon herself came out firing on all cylinders. But the defence is a little suspect behind her. Here the runner is safe on an error by the first baseman, but when the runner gets greedy and tries to take three bases, she is cut down at the hot corner.
For Flames, the scoring starts with this solid line drive through the short stop. When the ball gets away from the left fielder, the runner ends up on third base.
Three pitches later the first run scores when Gordon low inside pitch gets away from the catcher.
When Unitedville SQ threatened to score on this line drive in the fifth inning, the Flames management quickly call a meeting of the infield. Whatever was said apparently worked as Dawson struck out the next batter and gets her pitching opponent to bounce out to the shortstop, and the B Division in Cayo has a new marathon champion.
In the male division, the Hope Creek Falcons relegated the defending champions Esperanza Royal Devils to the runner up role this year, defeating them in the championship game 4-1.
And in the A Division, veteran pitcher Francine Coye got the ball in the Camalote Duurly?s game against Esperanza Wolverines.
This line drive off the bat of catcher Patricia Thimbrel plates the first run for Camalote in the top of the first inning as Tamira Orellano scores. Camalote would add a second run in the same inning after which pitcher for Esperanza Lanisha Jones found her groove.
But Coye was equal to the task on Saturday afternoon, striking out seven Esperanza batters on her way to the 2-nil shut out.
In closing… the Mexico City Cricket Club comprising employees of the various embassies in Mexico visited Belize over the weekend for a two-game series. On Saturday in Lord?s Bank the Belize National Cricket Team handily defended the home turf allowing only thirty runs while scoring thirty-two runs with ten wickets to spare. Out in Bermudian Landing on Sunday, national team again defeated Mexico, this time scoring two hundred and forty-four runs, while Mexico tallied only ninety-four.
In Cycling… Mateo Cruz won the Labour Day race in the elite category, which went from Orange Walk to Corozal, then back to Belize City, ending at the Marion Jones Sporting Complex. In the Masters Category, Michael Lewis top honours, while over in the female division Violet Morrison captured the title, and in the Junior Race, Marlon Castillo added another victory to his resume.
And finally, a canoe team from Belize won the Texas River Marathon this past Saturday, beating the defending champs by about three minutes. Calling themselves simply “The Belize Team”, the six man crew paddled a forty-foot canoe for the forty-six miles of the race. Three of the paddlers: Alex Lisbey, Armin Lopez, and Daniel Cruz came from Belize, while the other three: Lee Deviney, Jeff Glock, and Peter Churchman are from Texas. The river marathon is a preliminary race that will determine their starting position in the Texas Water Safari, a two hundred and sixty mile, thirty hour non-stop race coming up on the twelfth and thirteenth of June. The Belize Team is sponsored by the Belize Tourist Board, Continental Airlines, Marco Industries of Oklahoma, U.S.A., and The Belize Canoe Association. We have asked Elvin Penner of the Belize Canoe Association to keep us posted on their performance and wish them all the best.
And that?s sports for this week, we thank your for tuning in. James Adderley should be back in this seat next week, and until then we encourage all athletes nationwide, keep reaching for your dreams… the sky?s the limit. I am Patrick Jones.
