Home|Sports|Crusaders pummel SACSports
They win the BAISS senior boys title, taking the series two games to one
Simba FrenchSend an emailNovember 23, 2022 493 3 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
After dropping their first game of the season in game two, the Nassau Christian School (NCS) Crusaders senior boys team pummeled the St. Augustine’s College (SAC) Big Red Machine, 20-3, in game three to win the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) senior boys softball title yesterday. They won the best-of-three series two games to one, claiming their third softball championship in Crusaders’ history.
The Freedom Farm Baseball Fields was loud, in particular, by the
Crusaders’ dugout for most of the night as the game was in their favor from the bottom of the first inning when they scored 12 runs to take a 12-0 lead. They never trailed. This was their most dominant performance in the series having won the first game 26-11 and losing the second one 19-18.
Coach for the Crusaders Ainsworth Beckford thanked his players and the Big Red Machine for a hard fought series.
“For us, last game we started off very poor and it was not Crusaders softball. This game we brought it back – the game we had all season. Tonight, I told them that we are going to play our game which is a patient game. The result was a championship,” Beckford said.
After the Crusaders scored 12 runs in that first inning, the Big Red Machine only managed to put two runs on the board in the top of the second and the game began to look like a runaway one in favor of the Crusaders. In the bottom of the second inning, the Crusaders added four runs to take a 16-2 lead, sending their fans into full celebration mode.
Crusaders’ pitcher and Most Valuable Player (MVP) Jahiem Davis and the Crusaders’ defense kept the Big Red Machine scoreless for four innings after they scored in the second. They gave up the other run in the seventh and final inning.
“When we lost that game last week it was our first loss of the season. That gave me the spirit to fight harder. Coach Beckford told me this is a must-win game and we responded,” Davis said.
Beckford said that Davis really wanted to win this game as his sister Apryl Davis had already won the senior girls title last week for the Crusaders.
“He came here with an intention to follow his sister’s success so he came to pitch a good game this evening. He is in grade 10 and he is going to be dangerous for the next two years. As you just saw, he is the future for us,” Beckford said.
The Crusaders scored three runs in the third inning to take a commanding 19-2 lead. They scored their final run in the bottom of the sixth.
In the junior girls division, SAC swept the Queen’s College (QC) Comets, winning 23-19 in game one and 15-9 in game two. In game two of that series, SAC scored 12 of their 15 runs in the last two innings to pull off the victory. QC could only muster three runs after the third inning.
In the junior boys division, QC swept the Temple Christian Suns two games to none, winning the first game, 11-8, and then completing the sweep with a 15-7 win in game two. The Comets lost their only game of the regular season to SAC, and went into the playoffs as the number two seed. They disposed of the Crusaders in their single elimination playoff game, and easily handled the Suns in the championship series.
In the senior girls division, the Crusaders swept QC two games to none, winning the first game, 14-10, and then completing the sweep with a 4-3 scoreline in game two. After comfortably taking the first game, the Crusaders relied on good pitching and strong defense to get the job done in game two. They finished a perfect 8-0 in the regular season and then disposed of the defending champions St. John’s College Giants in their single elimination playoff game.
It is now the end of the BAISS softball season. They will now turn their attention toward the basketball season that gets underway today.