The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The St Andrew’s Hurricanes’ junior boys opened the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) 2015 softball season the same way they did a year ago.

Yesterday at St Augustine’s College, the Hurricanes pulled off a 17-9 victory over the Big Red Machine. And coach Yiorgo Coyle is hoping that this time, St Andrew’s will be a contender for the championship title.

Last year, the Hurricanes got into the playoffs but were eliminated by the Queen’s College Comets, who went on to lose to the Big Red Machine in the championship.

“We are looking forward to meeting them in the final this year,” said Coyle about the much anticipated showdown. “Our boys were not prepared for the ob (pitching). We were practicing for the windmill, so their pitching caught us a little off guard.”

Against SAC on Tuesday, the Hurricanes didn’t have to worry about whether they faced the windmill or the lob from Kelvin Scriven. They were prepared to face whatever came their way.

It showed as St Andrew’s broke away from an 8-8 tie through the first three innings, exploding for nine runs in the fourth as they batted around the clock for the big out victory.

With such an insurmountable lead, 14-year-old six-foot, one-inch pitcher Kristin Robinson bowed down and held the Big Red Machine’s bats in check the rest of the way.

“I thought we just played very well today,” said Robinson, a 10th grader who painfully remembers how they missed out in getting into the final last year. “Everyone on this team plays baseball, so it was just refreshing to come out here and play. We played against a good team, but after we got disappointed last year, we are expecting to play very well against whoever we play this year, including SAC. We have something to prove to them.”

It was SAC’s first game playing without coach John Todd, who retired after 35 years at the helm before the start of the season. Je’Vaughn Saunders, who got his baptism with the loss as the new coach, said he’s confident that the Big Red Machine will bounce back.

“For the first time, I felt we did a pretty decent job for the first half of the game,” said Saunders, who returned to his alma mater where he was a standout all-around athlete. “We made a few mental errors coming down to the end.

“But this is our first game for the season and I feel that as the season goes on, we will get better. We will be fine. We just have to work on what to do when we get the ball in certain situations to make the right plays.”

Although they gave up nine runs in the fourth, only four came off hits. All the others were as a result of some miscues with the Big Red Machine players not making the right play.

After taking advantage of four walks at the start of the frame, the Hurricanes blew up a storm by ripping four consecutive RBI singles from Nathan Heastie, Kristin Robinson, Aleex Saunders and Aidan Carter to put the game out of reach as they batted around the clock.

Robinson, the big intimidating pitcher, also helped his own cause when he highlighted the game in the second with a two-run in-the-park home run. He finished 2-for-4 with four RBI and two runs scored.

Saunders had two hits, two RBI and four runs scored and Carter had one hit with a RBI and three runs scored.

In addition to scoring the big nine-run fourth inning, St Andrew’s put four runs on just one hit in both the first and second innings on the scoreboard.

SAC had taken a slim 5-4 lead at the end of the first, batting around the clock with Terico Sweeting leading the attack with a three-run homer. They added two more runs on one hit in the second, sparked by Patrick Hepburn’s run-producing single and run scored. And they got another run from Kyle Whymms in the third and one from Tyler Moncur in the fifth, but it wasn’t enough.

Whymms had one hit and two walks, driving in a run and scoring three times, while Hepburn had a pair of hits with a RBI and two runs scored to lead the Big Red Machine’s offensive attack.