The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Thela Johnson saved her best performance for last as she shook the “monkey” off her back and guided her first year Lady Hitmen to an impressive 10-0 shutout over her former team, the defending champions Proper Care Pool Lady Sharks, to advance to the final of the New Providence Softball Association’s best-of-five championship series.

At the Banker’s Field last night, Johnson fired a two-hitter with four strike outs as the Lady Hitmen stopped the Lady Sharks in four innings via the 10-run rule to complete a clean three-game sweep in their semifinal playoffs.

“We knew we had a deficiency. We didn’t have the pitching to carry us anywhere and they showed us that,” said Lady Sharks’ manager Stephen ‘Bishop’ Beneby, who not only lost Johnson to her new team, but Sharnell Symonette to the pennant winning Bommer G Lady Operators and Alex Taylor-Gabriel.

“We didn’t have the pitching. The pitching fell apart. That was it.”

If there was anything that hurt Beneby the most, it was getting stopped as their reign as the NPSA and Bahamas Softball Federation national champions came to a halt.

“I felt we would have at least got one good game in,” he said. “But the pitching just didn’t hold up. In this game, before we could get started, we were down 8-9 runs in the first inning. So it was difficult to go any further than that.”

The Lady Hitmen, taking advantage of the Lady Sharks deficiency, will now await the winner of the other half of the series that is being played between the pennant winning Bommer G Lady Operators and the YII Shipping Wildcats. That series could wrap up as early as Saturday night.

Johnson, who was criticised by her former team after she left, said she was elated to get past them. “The pitching was just on another level tonight,” said Johnson of her own effort. “This will go over to the championship.”

When asked who she prefers, Johnson said it doesn’t matter because “I know what my team is capable of doing and all we are going to do is come out and perform to the best of our abilities.”

Johnson, however, said she was really stunned how her her team-mates rallied behind her to get to the championship.

“God was by my side. He sent me some players who could do the job and we developed together as a team and we came out on top,” said Johnson, who noted that she’s just happy that she got by the Lady Sharks, taking “the pressure and the monkey off my back.”

Johnson, who pitched all three games in the series, said she told Beneby that she doesn’t have anything against him or the team.

“Everything is cool,” she said.

While she was firing on all cylinders from the mound, Johnson’s team-mates backed her up from the bottom of the first inning when they batted around the clock, scoring nine runs on three hits with four hits by pitches.

Tasa Armbrister highlighted the rally with a two-run triple and Johnson helped her own cause with a two-run single.

The Lady Hitmen’s final run came in the third when Randell Cooper walked and scored on Shan Fowler’s two-out run-producing single.

“I think we played a great game tonight. I think we showed that we’re ready for the championship right now,” Cooper said. “Thela pitched an awesome game tonight. We’re looking for another ring for her. We’re carrying this title.”

And versatile Melinda Bastian said because they are a younger team, they displayed more talent.

“We were more disciplined, we stuck together and we played together as a team,” she said.

On the performance of her cousin, Bastian said from the time that Johnson played for the CR Walker Knights, she proved that she had the talent.

“When she went to Whirlpool and the junior national team under (Colin) Troppy Knowles and Linda Ford, she was on a roll,” Bastian said. “After winning the title with Proper Care last year, she was more determined to come back and prove that she can do it with this new team.”

With their season now over and done with, Beneby said he’s already looking ahead to returning next year.

“We’re going to be okay. I made a statement at the beginning of the year. Who ain’t beat us this year ain’t going to beat us no more,” he said. “We have some good young pitchers who will be ready next year.

“When you look at it, the senior girls in the league ain’t pitching no better because if you watch their games, they are throwing just as much pitches as us. They just have seasoned pitchers and so they’re throwing more strikes than us. That is where we are falling down.”