By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net    

After getting over the jetlag in their opening loss by one run, the Atlanta Smoke bounced back and pulled off two consecutive abbreviated blowout victories over the Orlando Monarchs.

Shaking off their 4-3- loss in Thursday’s opener on the same day they arrived in The Bahamas, the Smoke blanked the Monarchs 10-0 in game two on Friday and their 9-1 win on Saturday sealed the deal.

The Smoke were crowned the initial champions of the Don’t Blink Sports Entertainment’s Queens of Paradise Women’s Professional Softball Tournament at the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium.

The three-day event was held in conjunction with the B4Real Sports and was sanctioned by the Bahamas Softball Federation and supported by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture.

It was a memorable weekend for the Smoke, who also hosted a free softball clinic on Friday for a number of local high school softball players and those who are interested in learning the game.

But Smoke’s head coach Cat Tarvin, who also serves as the head coach of the Hampton University Pirates women’s softball team, was just thrilled to capture it all.

“After the first game, we turned this around. Our bats were on fire and our pitchers held it down,” Tarvin said. “We came back rested and ready to go.”

As for the trip here, Tarvin said she has a friend from The Bahamas and she always tells her about how nice it is here.

“It was “everything and more that she told me,” Tarvin said. “I definitely love it and I hope to be back.”

Catcher Jada Cody stole the show when she was named the most valuable player of the tournament. But she credited her achievement to her Smoke team-mates.

“Big shout-out to my team-mates and I’m glad to have this opportunity to be out here,” Cody said. 

“It was great and the energy was great out here in the stadium and being out here in The Bahamas was amazing. I’m just blessed to be here.”

Also excited to be in The Bahamas was third sacker Charla Echols. She said it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and winning the title was the icing on the cake. “I’ve been working out in preparation for this season, so it was nice to get two home runs back-to-back,” said Echols of her pair of homers in Saturday’s clincher.

“We just showed how good this team could be. We put it all together and we performed very well, especially after losing the first game of the series.”

For the Monarchs, head coach Megan Wiggins said they performed as best as they could.

“This is our first game for the season, but obviously it wasn’t easy travelling out of the country and playing here,” Wiggins said. 

“The Smoke are a good team, but we did our best.

“We’re still figuring out all of the bases. But they’re a really good team and we competed against them. We have a younger team and we’re still trying to get our feet under us, but we will work through it.”

Despite their loss, infielder Katherine Rodriquez, making her debut for Orlando, said it was just awesome to be here playing in The Bahamas. 

“We came out here knowing that these were our first games for the season, opening up in The Bahamas was an amazing experience,” Rodriguez said. 

“Everybody really helped us, they went out their way to make us comfortable and the field was fantastic and the fans were great. This was an amazing atmosphere and we loved it.”Rodriguez joined her coach by indicating that it was tough losing to Atlanta.

“They have a very good team. They have great pitching, we struggled a bit offensively,” she said. “They put up runs and we couldn’t back it up and that was our downfall. We didn’t back up our pitchers.”

The tournament was organized by pro baseball players Todd Isaacs Jr and Lucius Fox Jr from the Don’t Blink Sports Entertainment, along with the husband-wife team of former MLB player Brandon Phillips and WWE wrestler Jade Cargill of B4Real Sports.

Here’s a summary of the final three games played:

Smoke 9, Monarchs 1: Cody cracked a three-run homer and Echols followed with the first of her two shots out of the park in a four-run top of the first inning to put Atlanta in full control of the clincher on Saturday.

The Smoke added five more runs in the third, highlighted by Echols’ three-run shot to put the game out of reach for the Monarchs, who didn’t have any answer to stop their rivals.

J Wright was the winning pitcher. Sona Halajian was tagged with the loss before she was relieved by Kaitlyn Felton in the third. 

Kyleigh Sand produced the lone run for Orlando in the 5hird inning when she led off with a walk, moved to second on Alex Colemn=an’s single and caught a ride home on third sacker Theresa Malau’ulu’s RBI double.

Smoke 10, Monarchs 0: After scoring the game’s winning run in the first on a RBI single by Morgan Howe to plate Silentrain Espinoza, Atlanta went wild with nine more runs in the fourth.

Howe got her second hit with a homer to start the rally that saw Koko Woodley get an RBI single, Espinoza also got her second hit with a two-run homer and both Cody and Echols added an RBI single each.

Orlando got the bases loaded in the second with one out, but couldn’t score. They also left two stranded in the third and still weren’t able to produce a run.

Donnie Osbourne went the distance to secure the win on the mound for the Smoke and Aspen Wesley started for the Monarchs, but was relieved in the fourth.

Monarchs 4, Smoke 3: Allie Skaggs had a two-run double to get Orlando started in the first inning and they got an unearned run from Chloe Malau’ulu in the second for their third and the winning run in the fifth from Coleman. 

Kaitlyn Felton was the winning pitcher for the Monarchs before she was replaced by Jaden Vickers in the fourth. Autumn Pease was tagged with the loss for the Smoke.

Espinoz led off the second with a double and scored Atlanta’s first run on Anamarie Bruni’s RBI sacrifice fly. Bruini singled and scored on an error in the fifth and she was hit by a pitch in the seventh and scored their final run on Woodley’s RBI sacrifice fly.