BTL wins women’s softball title
Good evening I’m James Adderley and you’re locked into another dish of Sports Monday. The National ladies Softball Tournament took centre-stage at Rogers Stadium over the weekend with eight teams vying to be the best from amongst many. However, at moneytime, the two left standing were Camalote Durly’s of Cayo, a perennial challenger and BTL, formerly Acros of Belize City.
We start with Mary Flowers on the mound for BTL displaying her defensive skills, throwing out Angela Andrews at first. Frances Coye then flies out for the second out of the inning. The third out of the opening inning comes as Flowers strikes out Bridgett Fuller with a runner on first.
Durly’s pitcher Francine Salazar was even more dominating than Flowers, not allowing any runner to reach first base in the opening inning, and you knew we’ve got a good contest going here.
In the second inning Flowers begins to falter. Samantha Casey tags this left handed stand-up up triple. And the next batter, Patricia Thimbrel brings home the runner on this poor throw from the infield.
In the third, this double from Bridget Fuller brings home the second run of the ballgame for Camalote. BTL came back in the fourth in the non-traditional way, getting their first run from Kimberly Vacaro, who benefits from an errant throw to third.
In the bottom of the fifth, Audrey Reyes comes in as pinch hitter to tie the game at three apiece. However, Camalote comes right back to take the lead on this hit from Sharlette Gamboa, and then this wild pitch from Flowers gives the Durly’s team a 2-run lead.
Talk about helping ones own cause, the pitcher Mary Flowers gets back a run with this double. But wait a minute, who’s taking care of third? And this helps Vacaro to get on base.
Now hats off to the constable as she smacks Flowers for 2 RBI’s giving the lead to BTL.
When Lydia Cacho lays down this bunt, it creates a first base error that allows two more runs to come in. This forces a confrontation between first base umpire Patrick Jones and the Camalote management and it brings a ten-minute delay.
When things cool down Ruth Lamb seals the victory with the 9-4 score. It looked that way until a protest is filed by Camalote management, which brought the attention of the law.
Now there are the officials in a pow-wow to settle the situation, if the remaining inning should be played. Are you confused? Let’s have the official word from tournament director, Greg Moguel.
Greg Moguel, Tournament Director
“It was two protests by the Camalote organisation. One, of a runner going down first base, where they felt in their minds that she was within base spot and not within the three-foot line. The ruling of the umpire from the first base, was the runner was within the first base line, three-foot part, and so automatically the umpire decision is final. That automatically won by BTL. The other, was because the umpire and chief has called the game off because there were two fans who came off the Camalote dugout unto the field. The association takes responsibility of that, so it was ruled in favour of the Camalote team and the game should have played where it left off. But because of the first ruling, that is the one the Camalote team is so upset about, they decide that they will not take part in the tournament again. It’s a bad situation, it’s not good for softball, but that’s the situation of the Softball Association. BTL is the champion and Camalote the runner up.”
Despite the controversy, we congratulate BTL of Belize City.
In semi-pro basketball, Friday saw San Cas U.B. damp Corozal Kaus 81-74, while last night BTL Nets lost to Dangriga’s Aba Eseini. We couldn’t get that score going to newstime. On Saturday, Data Pro Raiders rolled over Orange Walk Music Centre 84-76.
Thus the playoffs, which kicks off Friday, matches the Raiders and U.B., while BTL will be paired with O.W. Music Centre in this semi-final round.
