The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

NOW that they have retained their New Providence Softball Association men’s championship crown, the Arnette’s Sporting Lounge Hitmen have one more goal in mind and that is to avenge their disappointing third place finish in the Bahamas Softball Federation’s National Championship last year.

The Hitmen, still celebrating their four-game sweep over the pennant winning Sting Truckers over the weekend in the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex, will now prepare for the nationals that will be held this weekend when teams from Abaco, Andros, Grand Bahama and Eleuthera come to town.

“We are trying to get in one or two practices before the nationals. Hopefully we will try to strengthen up our defence up the middle and be more efficient,” said Hitmen’s manager Darren Stevens. “Once we show up on the defensive end of the board, I think we will be a whole lot better.”

Arnette’s Sporting Lounge showed that they have a heart of a champion as they got past Sting in what was expected to be a real nail-biter in the best-of-seven series that was held in memory of the late Carl ‘Bang Bang’ Johnson.

“If anybody tells me there’s no God, I will tell them you have to be crazy. There has to be a God,” Steven said. “Without him, nothing would be possible. We had a real heated battle against the (BTC) Elite Warriors in the playoffs, but our guys never gave up, but we just hung in there.

“Against the Truckers, nobody really didn’t expect us to sweep them because everybody was saying that without them in the league last year, our championship win was a fluke. We regrouped this year and we made it a point to pull this one off. It just turned out that we did it with a sweep.”

This year, the Hitmen added a couple of players who were called the “rejects,” but Stevens said he was glad that they came along because they made them real contenders for the championship title again.

“Now we’re back and this time we want to avenge our third place finish from last year,” Steven said. “We’re looking to come home with the gold.”

In order for the Hitmen to keep the title here, they will have to get past the Creter Bulldogs from Abaco, who will be back to defend their title.

“They are the champs and so if you want to be the champs, you have to beat the champs,” Stevens said. “So they are the champs and we’re looking forward to seeing them.”