By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Queen’s College Comets squeezed out a 4-1 victory to take game one of the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools’ senior boys best-of-three baseball championship series.

Tuesday night’s performance at the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium came after the  St Anne’s Blue Waves out-slugged St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine 17-15 to take the initial lead in the junior boys’ series.

Game two of both series will be played on Thursday. If necessary, the third and deciding games will be played on Friday.

Comets 4, Saints 1

Kingsway Academy marched to the early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as starting catcher Tyler Nairn took advantage of his leading role. Neither team could score until the fourth when Kingsway Academy blew a golden opportunity to add another one. 

Anthony Miller drilled a shot to right for a lead off double. 

Nicholas Knowles went back to right on a high fly ball, but when Miller attempted to score, Queen’s College catcher Blake Cartwright was waiting for the tag out. 

Knowles, who had moved up to third with two out, was forced out on a run down.

The Comets, however, got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame after Ethan Knowles reached first on an error and came home on another that put Treyvon Simms. 

Another shot to right enabled Simms to score the go ahead run. With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth, Kingsway Academy made a pitching change and Queen’s College capitalised, scoring two runs to extend their lead to 4-1. With their last chance to score in the seventh, Austin Cartwright retired the side in order as Queen’s College held on for the win.

Blue Waves 17, Big Red Machine 15 

SAC rolled out to a quick 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and they added another in the second for a 5-0 lead.

Blue Waves, however, responded with four runs in the third, only to give up the same amount in the bottom as SAC extended their lead to 9-4. Again in the fourth, both teams traded the same amount of runs as SAC stayed ahead 12-7. 

But the tide was broken in the fifth as Blue Waves got one run to trim the deficit to 12-8. After the Big Red Machine was stalled, St Anne’s sailed ahead with nine runs to take their first lead of the game, 17-13, in the sixth.

Despite SAC threatening to make a gallant comeback for the first time in the game, St Anne’s came up with the defensive stops to seal the deal.

Joseph Humes, their starting second baseman, was a lil dynamo, leading the charge as he moved on the mound amd ended up in shortstop where he turned a couple of critical plays.

Nathan Fernander, who started at shortstop, came in as the closer in the sixth to perserve the win.

Chercovic Wells, who came out of the dugout to join head coach Dana Braynen on the field after their assistant coach got ejected, said it wasn’t the slugfest they anticipated, but they just wanted it more than SAC.

“We thought we would come out hitting and make pur plays “ Wells said. “But it took the boys a little while to warm up and adjust to SAC’s playing style.”

Wells said they will get in a practice today and hopefully coach Braynen will have them hyped up from the first inning.

SAC’s coach Je’Vaughn Saunders admitted that they let the game slip away from them in the sixth inning. “For the first five innings, we played the game we were supposed to, but we kind of broke down in the sixth,” Saunders said.

“Once we execute on Thursday, we should be fine. We just need to lock in for the full game and we will be good.” 

The Big Red Machine started with Malique Williams on the mound, but ended up changing a few pitchers. So did the Blue Waves. But in addition to their pitching change, SAS also switched starting catcher Philip Glinton and third baseman Zach Dean, which made an impact in the game.