By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
The Commando Security Truckers rode the pair of solo home runs from Teran Wood and another from Courtney Smith as they went on to pull off a 9-2 victory over the Brokell Construction Cougars as the Bahamas Softball Federation’s 43rd National Softball Championship got underway last night in the Banker’s Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex.
The Truckers came from an early 2-0 deficit after the first inning as Eugene Pratt settled into his groove on the mound and the back-to-back shots from Wood and Smith propelled Commando Security to a 5-2 lead in the third inning and they never looked back.
“We started off a little shaky, but we picked up the momentum and we stayed strong throughout the game,” said Smith, who played shortstop on the defensive end for the Truckers.
Coming off his most valuable player performance in the New Providence Softball Association’s championship series last week to get Commando Security into the round robin this weekend, Smith said he and Wood have a player-to-player battle over who will be the leader of the Truckers’ offensive attack in the tournament so he didn’t want to get left out.
“He told me that he’s going to carry everything in the round robin, but I told him that I’m going to be right behind him,” Smith said of Wood, who played right field and batted just ahead of him in their line-up.
Prior to their consecutive homers in the third, Winston Seymour Jr led the inning with a single, Lamar Watkins walked and Ramon Storr had a RBI double. Marvin Wood added a RBI sacrifice fly to set the stage for Teran Wood and Smith to display their home run prowess.
The Truckers would go on to put another run on the scoreboard in the fourth as Ramon Storr had a run-producing double to plate Winston Seymour Jr, who had a one-out single.
Then in the fifth, Teran Wood belted a lead off solo shot and Garfield Bethel and Marion Johnson scored their final two runs with one out on a couple of errors.
The Cougars opened the game by scoring two runs in the bottom of the first as Johnathan Scott led off with a triple and scored on a stolen base after his brother Daniel Scott singled and moved up to second on a stolen base as well. Daniel Scott eventually scored on an error for a 2-0 lead.
After getting shut out over the next three innings, the Cougars threatened to score in the fifth as Johnathan Scott ripped a lead off triple that he tried to stretch into a home run. But on a gallant throw on the money from Lamar Watkins to Garfield Bethel at the plate, Scott got tagged out trying to slide home.
Stehan Russell, manager of the Brokell Construction, said it definitely wasn’t the type of performance he expected from his Cougars.
“After the second inning, we made too many errors and then they started hitting the ball. There was nothing that we could do about it,” Russell said.
“Their bats really were a problem. We couldn’t defend the home runs. They are a very good team that can hit the ball. But we will rebound from this loss and we will be back for the next game. We hope to meet them again before the end of the tournament.”
The tournament, featuring five men and women teams from Abaco, Andros, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama and New Providence, is scheduled to continue play 5pm today.
Then on Saturday, the action is slated to pick up at 9am and wrap up on Sunday when they hope to crown the new champions.
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