By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net    

The Ed Armbrister and Freedom Farm baseball leagues emerged as champions of the Bahamas Baseball Association’s sixth annual Andre Rodgers Senior National Baseball Championships over the weekend.

In the championship games played on Sunday at the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium, the Ed Armbrister Baseball League routed the JBLN 11-3 for the under-23 title, while Freedom Farm squeezed past JBLN 2-1 for the under-16 crown.

The two winning teams showed off their championship rings they received, while the runners-up and third-place finishers took home medals. 

The tournament, sponsored by the Bruce-Newball Foundation and A Sure Win, was carried live over ZNS television and honoured the legendary Fred “Papa” Smith for his long-time service to the sport of baseball. 

EABL 11, 

JBLN 3

Farron Moss went 2-for-4 at the plate and led the team with two runs batted in to cart off the most valuable player award.

Moss was a part of the onslaught that EABL came from a 3-2 deficit in the top of the fourth inning to erupt for eight runs to take an insurmountable 10-3 lead into the final two innings of the two-hour long game.

There was so much jubilation from EABL that left head coach Michael Butler singing the praises of his players after they dosed him with the drink from the water cooler. 

“We are so elated. We’ve been knocking on their door for the last three years and we keep missing out on this gold medal game and it finally came,” said Butler, who along with his brother, Nathaniel Butler, coached the team, consisting of high school and collegiate players.

“We’re going to do whatever it takes to ensure that we come back and defend the title next year because we know that they will be coming for us.”

In the rally that drove EABL to victory, Dominic Inniss was struck by a pitch, Robert Grant was struck by a pitch, Joey Miller walked and Farron Moss singled to centre field. 

As they kept the bases loaded in the out-pouring of runs, Caden Walker walked, Andre Arthur singled to centre field, and each runner scored.

With such a big margin to work with, Grant added the fuel to the fire as he held the JBLN bats at-bat from the mound to seal the deal defensively. 

He allowed three hits and three runs (two earned) over five innings, striking out eight and walking two.

Grant, who is preparing to head to Florida International University in August, said it was a fantastic way to close out the tournament.

“I want to thank God for the performance and for my teammates and our coaches as we executed the game plan,” Grant said. “I also want to thank my catcher. I knew once I put it in the zone, he would work with it.”

Max Gomez went 1-for-2 at the plate and led the team with one RBI for JBLN. Max Gomez, Aaron Knowles and Nathan Miller each collected one hit. Miller also stole two bases.

JBLN, however, saw their starting pitcher surrender two hits and eight runs (six earned) over three innings, striking out four and walking two before Miller came in and tried to stop the bleeding, but it was a little too late. 

“Overall in the tournament, the team played hard and they fought well, but we just didn’t come out and execute the way we should in the championship game and that was the difference,” said Romero Cartwright, the head coach for JBLN. “We gave up eight runs in one inning on ground plays. I didn’t expect that at all. With this type of ball players we have on this team, I know nine times out of 10, we would have played better than we did tonight.”

Cartwirhgt said JBLN will be back next year and hopefully they will get revenge.

Freedom Farm 2, JBLN 1: With the game tied at 1-1, both teams attempted to squeeze in the game winning run in a tightly contested game for the under-16 title.But in the end, it was Freedom Farm that got the job done with their walk-of-the-field victory as coach Ray Stubbs said they will cherish the performance for a long time.

“A wn is always good. I’m proud of my boys. They beat us earlier 1-0, so it was good to come back and beat them when it counted the most in the championship,” Stubbs said.

Freedom Farm secured the win in the bottom of the seventh as Elisha Butler raced home all the way from second on an overthrow attempting to get him at third into left field with Mark Gaitor at the plate.

Doyle Sears started the game for Freedom Farm and he recorded 14 outs before Cavian Robert cme in relief and tossed two and one-third innings of scoreless ball. He surrendered zero hits, striking out three and walking three.

Liam Eneas began the game for JBLN giving up one hit and one run (zero earned) over two innings, striking out two and walking none. 

Ralph Burrows led Freedom Farm offensively with one run batted in. Blake Cartwright, Teron Davis, and Cavian Robert each collected one hit. Teron Davis stole two bases. 

Freedom Farm played flawless baseball, not committing a single error.

Nathan Fernander led JBLN with an RBI. Nathan Fernander had a pair of walks and Javan Smith stole two bases.

Vince Seymour Jr., one of the coaches for JBLN, said they had their chances to win, but just couldn’t pull it off.

“We took a chance to send a man home on a mid shallow ball and that didn’t work out,” he said. “But the guys fought hard. they gave it their all. We just came up short.”

Seymour Jr said the tournament was really competitive and they have to tip their hats off to the Abaco Youth Baseball League, who showed some vast improvements this year.  

“They came a long way from last year to this year,” he said. “They played well, they pitched well and they hit very well. They scored the second most runs in the tournament. They looked great.”

GBLL 8, Abaco 3: In the battle for the consolation third place in the under-16 division, Milique Israel went 2-for-3 with three RBI and a pair of runs scored and Tlyer Knowles was 1-for-3 with a RBI to pace Grand Bahama over Abaco.

Kaiden Knowles was 1-for-2 with a run scored; K’Shaun Mitchell  was 1-for-1 with an RBI and Farris Nicholson drove in a run and scored another in his two at-bats to pace Abaco.

Brent Sands, one of the coaches for Grand Bahama, said there was no way that they were going to leave the tournament without taking home some of the hardware.

“Today we made some adjustments. The last game, we made some errors that caused us to be playing for the bronze medal,” Sands said. “We built from that -, executed and played like we should to get the bronze.”

Sands said he was extremely pleased with the way the tournament went and was even more impressed with the fact that there was a college showcase for the players to display their skills to the visiting scouts.

The showcase, organized once again by Michael Foster, was staged on Saturday and featured American collegiate coaches Wilberto ‘Coach Willie’ Ramos from Florida Memorial University and DJ Price from Barry University,

BBA president Clarence ‘CJ’ McKenzie said the tournament went very well with good competition over the three days they staged the event. He noted that if this event was any indication, they were looking forward to the junior nationals, set for Grand Bahama from June 16-19. 

“We expect that to be a dany as well,” said McKenzie, as he thanked the Bruce Newball Foundation and A Sure Win, ZNS and Insurance Management.

He also noted that the BBA could not have picked a more deserving person to honor this year than Smith, who provided excellent leadership and is a great figure in the baseball community.

Under-16 award winners

Most hits - Tyler Knowles - GABLL

Most RBI - Maleek Israel - GBLL.

Most stolen bases - Ajay Knowles - JBLN.

Best pitcher - Liam Eneas - JBLN.

MVP - Cavian Roberts - Freedom Farm.

Under-23 award winners

Most hits - Nathan Miller - JBLN.

Most RBI - Jordan Miller - EABL.

Most stolen bases - Caden Walker.

Bestpitcher - Tyler Nairn - JBLN.

MVP - Ferron Moss - EABL.