By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas Government Departmental Softball Association will represent the Bahamas with a 25-member team - made up of a mixture of youth and experienced players - at the 2015 WBSC Co-Ed Slow Pitch World Cup in Plant City, Florida, this weekend.
Sanctioned by the Bahamas Softball Federation, the team - managed by Dereck ‘Duckie’ Christie - left town yesterday and will compete in the tournament today through Sunday. A total of nine countries, including Bulgaria, Canada, Curacao, France, Germany, Great Britain, Turks & Caicos and USA are competing.
This is the second time that the Bahamas will be participating in the WBSC World Cup. In 2002, the Bahamas participated in the men’s World Cup version of the tournament. The Bahamas won the silver medal behind the USA. This marks the first time the Bahamas will be in the Slow Pitch World Cup.
“We have a combination of youth and experience,” said Edward ‘Big Time’ Russell, president of the BGDSA. “From previous experience, we notice that we need a lot of young outfielders because the fields are very large, so we took a lot of extra outfielders and persons who can hit the gap and place the ball wherever the defence isn’t. But we also have a few power hitters in the mix, so we are confident that we will do very well.”
The Bahamas’ team is made up of Eugene Bain, Dornell Butler, Timothy Clarke, Terrance Culmer, Karen Darville, Krystal Delancey, Vernetta Evans, Laurell Farrington, Sherman Ferguson, Alcott Forbes, Maryann Fowler, Theresa Francis, Jordon Gibson, Gregory Lockhart, Duane Mackry, Bernice Penn, Nat Porter, Edward Russell, Raynaldo Russell, Keron Sands, Jamal Scavella, Antonia Simmons, Mary Sweeting and Ishmael Thompson.
The tournament will begin with a single round robin to determine each team’s seed. The top four seeds will advance to the page playoff, while the remaining teams will continue in the placement playoff.
Each co-ed team can contain a maximum of 20 players with no fewer than five being of one gender.
A home run hitting contest has been added to the line-up this year and will feature two batters from each team.
Today, the Bahamas is slated to play the USA at 10:30am. They will come back to play the Turks & Caicos Islands at 1:30pm and round out the first day against Bulgaria at 4:30pm. The home run contest will be staged at 6pm.
On Friday, the Bahamas is scheduled to open up against Great Britain at 9am before taking on Canada at noon. Their final game will be played at 3pm against Germany.
Then on Saturday, the Bahamas’ last two games in the round robin will be against Curacao at 1:30pm and France at 4:30pm.
The playoffs and championship are set for Sunday.
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