The National Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA) held its national high schools softball tournament on Friday and Saturday, March 11-12, in Punta Gorda, and the results indicate that the finals in both female and male matches were exciting indeed, as both were decided by 1 run only. The games were played at two venues, the Toledo Union Field and the Cattle Landing Field, and were hosted by Toledo Community College. Participating teams represented the 4 country zones – North, Central, West and South.
The tournament followed a simple knockout format, with Friday’s losers playing on Saturday for 3rd place, while Friday’s winners clashed for the championship on Saturday.
Both female games on Friday were decided by the “mercy rule”, as Nazarene High (Central) blasted Belmopan Baptist (West), 18-8 (WP – Amber Wade; LP – Shanelly Ho); and Belize Rural High (North) trounced Stann Creek Ecumenical (South), 16-3 (WP – Kayle McFadzean; LP – Desiree Hulse).
The male games were different. The NSSSA report said that Belmopan Comprehensive (West) defeated SJC (Central), 7-0, by “forfeit”, but then went on to say that umpires stopped the game “for safety reason”. Our inquiries revealed that the umpire’s decision to award the game to BCS was as a result of serious misconduct by an SJC player. The other male game was a 12-11 victory by Independence High (South) over San Pedro High (North) (WP – Keenan Moguel; LP – Konrad Gonzalez).
The pattern continued on Saturday, with the female 3rd place game ending by the mercy rule, 20-0, with Stann Creek Ecumenical winning over Belmopan Baptist (WP – Desiree Hulse; LP – Shanelly Ho); and the male 3rd place match being another “nail biter”, with SJC edging San Pedro High, 8-7 (WP – Myric Marin; LP – Konrad Gonzalez).
The championship games, however, both went “down to the wire”. Reports are that the female championship game went down to the bottom of the last inning, with Nazarene High emerging victorious, 15-14, over a game Belize Rural High (WP – Amber Wade; LP – Kayle McFadzean). And in the male championship game, with the game halted early due to darkness, Belmopan Comprehensive got the 4-3 win over Independence High (WP – Jose Hernandez; LP – Keenan Moguel).
Female MVP for the tournament was Nazarene’s pitching ace Amber Wade who had 13 strikeouts in 2 victories; and male MVP was Compre’s Jose Hernandez who had 10 strikeouts in 2 victories.
(Information courtesy of NSSSA release.)