Lady Rebels win softball marathon
Good evening, I’m James Adderley and this is Sports Monday. The Belize City softball Association kicked off its annual season with the usual marathon package staged yesterday at Rogers Stadium.
We go to the female finals as defending champion Brothers Habet Body 2000 Lady Rebels clash with B.T.L. for the 2003 title. And for Mary Flowers on the mound for B.T.L., the start is rather shaky as she walks Sophie Smith–the first batter she faces.
In fact, Flowers loads the bases by the time Carla Humes steps up to bat, and the Rebels pitcher helps her cause with this single. Make it 2-nil, when Louise Bailey gets this single past the infield in impressive fashion.
Mary Flowers then comes back to strike out third baseman, Diane Jones. However, Tiffany Fortune comes up with this base clearing triple to give Lady Rebels a 5-zip lead.
In their turn at bat, B.T.L. tries to come back. Lydia Cacho gets on base thanks to an infield fumble. She reaches third base on this sacrifice bunt from Martha Reese, despite paying the price with her body. And then, she takes advantage of poor ball management by Lady Rebels to put B.T.L. on the scoreboard.
Norecia Rowland brings in the next run with this power punch to the outfield that is poorly played; and at the end of one it’s a 5-2 score.
In the bottom of the fourth, B.T.L. inches closer with this hit from Martha Reese that brings Lydia Cacho home from second.
However, Carla Humes halts that momentum by getting Audrey Reyes to ground this ball into third base and gets thrown out at first.
In the top of the fifth, Flowers strikes out Tiffany Fortune, but the catcher, Ruth Lamb, throw to third is errant and the Rebels get another unearned run.
Carla Humes and Lady Rebels would go on to post the 9-5 run to take the female marathon title. Catcher Ashanti Audrey emerges Most Valuable Player.
On the male side, eighth time champ, Rookies, continued on their winning ways taking the 2003 marathon title with a 5-3 victory over archrivals Dantos. Nelbert Flowers was voted M.V.P.
Turning to the cricket scene, Sunrise held court at Lords Bank to kick off the second round of the Harrison Parks Cricket Competition against Excellent of Crooked Tree.
Sunrise, the defending champion, batted first and totalled one hundred and forty-one runs for nine outs, thanks to the efforts of batters like Edison Parks, while Excellent could only reply with one hundred and seventeen in their turn at bat. Give Sunrise the big W, as they look poised to repeat. Of course, there’s still a long way to go
In cycling news, as the countdown continues to the seventy-fourth edition of the annual Cross Country Cycle Classic set for April nineteenth, we caught up with Fitzgerald “Palas” Joseph, coach of the mighty Santino team, which has won all four major events staged so far. We got this perspective.
Fitzgerald “Palas” Joseph, Coach, Santino’s Jammis
“We have seven Belizeans on our roster, along with four foreigners…well I’m not sure what will be the outcome of the association’s decision to allow us to bring…actually, all the teams in Belize aren’t sure of the amount of foreigners they will be allowed. But we have fielded a list of four foreigners, which include the defending champion Eduardo Uribe, Gerardo Castillo, both of Mexico, we put in Rudolfo Massie, the Italian that wasn’t allowed to ride last year and the Guatemalan Miguel Perez. That’s our four foreigners, and then we have our semi-local guys.”
James Adderley
“You have two cross country champions on your team going in. You have the defending champion Eduardo Uribe, and you have the two-time champ Ernest Meighan. What’s your feel?”
Fitzgerald “Palas” Joseph
“Well, Eduardo is poised to win. He just won the Belmopan Classic, and he’s in very good condition. We’ve spoken to him and he has done some races since the Belmopan race. And we are also looking on our local guys, because myself as the coach would really want a Belizean to win this year’s Cross Country.
Ernest Meighan is in condition, but I don’t think he’s physically well. He has been complaining a lot of sickness, flu, colds, coughs etcetera before the road champion and thus last week he was complaining about yet another flu. So he is one of our trump cards in our local field, but he is suffering illness right now. We have the likes of Ariel Rosado who has won two classics of the four classics for this year, being that he is the National Road Champion and the Valentine Classic winner. Ariel Rosado is in very good condition, he is mentally prepared and I’ll be calling on him a great deal in this year’s Cross Country to pull it off for me. I also have Mateo Cruz on my team, who is always there, but like you used to tell me James, his ship hasn’t entered into the harbour. And we also have the likes of Douglas Lamb, who people will know is a very good domestique, but he has also pulled off some big Ws for us. So he again is another guy that I’ll be utilising to try to let this one be for us.”
Well, the countdown continues to Holy Saturday people. That’s it for now, we invite you back same time, same place, next week. Jah over all! I’m James Adderley.
