The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Ace pitcher Alcott Forbes missed a no-hitter and the shut-out, but he was confident that his C&S Hitmen would not have lost game one of the men’s best-of-seven championship series against the Commando Security Truckers. The series got started in the Bankers’ Field at the Baillou Hills Sporting Complex on Saturday night.

The defending champions Hitmen, behind Forbes’ five-hitter with 15 strike outs, held off the Truckers 5-2 to take the initial 1-0 lead in their series that is scheduled to continue 7pm Tuesday.

“The first game was very sluggish. I was resting a lot,” Forbes pointed out about his performance. “I didn’t have no repetition in, but I thank God for the win. My only concern is that we are making too much mistakes on the base path early. I believe after this game, you will see a different team with a different mindset.”

Although they made some costly mistakes, the Hitmen, managed by Darren Stevens, had opened a 5-0 lead at the end of the bottom of the fifth and they stayed ahead the rest of the game.

“It’s always good to stay out front. You have more opportunities to score runs,” Forbes said. “Because it’s seven innings, you can’t stop anybody because in the championship, so it’s important to stay out front, give yourself the leeway so if you make a mistake, like you see what happened in the seventh, I missed a pitch and the follow-up with a double.”

Third baseman Rashad Seymour got hit with one out and the bases loaded to the five-run second inning rally.

Centre fielder Rodney Forbes drew a one-out bases loaded RBI walk and with two out, Forbes ripped a three-run triple to clean the bases and pushed their lead to 5-0.

And after taking the initial lead in the series, Forbes said there’s no looking back.

“I believe the first game is the pacesetter, I believe that now that we have them down, we just have to keep our foot on them and keep them out.”

The Truckers, managed by Perry Seymour, threatened to score in the first, third and fifth. But it wasn’t until the seventh when they actually did on centre fielder Lamar Watkins’ two-out, two-run double that knocked in right fielder Thomas Davis and second baseman Stephen Russell.

“As a team, our bats were a lot sluggish, very slow and we wasn’t aggressive enough,” Watkins said. “The game is all about hits, runs and errors and I think we wore him down pretty good. It’s just that we didn’t get the timely hits, except for the one I got, but that was late in the seventh.

“I think we had one bad inning in the second that really hurt us. We didn’t respond after they took the lead.”

As they prepare for game two, Watkins assured the Hitmen that they will be ready.

“All of the butterflies are out,” Watkins insisted. “We’re back into the championships after missing last year, but we’re back, we’re hungry with a new group of young guys, so I think we will be ready Tuesday. You will see a new team on Tuesday.”

Two of the Truckers players, pitcher Eugene Pratt and shortstop Austin Hanna both struck out in their three plate appearances, while third baseman D’Juan Seymour was the only other batter not to reach base with a ground out and a pair of strike outs.

Pratt went the distance, giving up just five innings, including one in the five-run second inning. He also recorded five strike outs.