By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

TEAM Bahamas gave it a gallant effort, but was eliminated from the PONY Bronco 16U Caribbean and Latin America Baseball Zone Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, after losing its final two games over the weekend.

Against Ecuador on Friday, The Bahamas fell 9-3 as Ajay Knowles went 2-for-3 with a run and Terell Outten, Malique Israel and Kaizen Dorsett all went 1-for-3 with Outten and Israel both driving in. a run.

And in their final game against the Dominican Republic on Saturday, Team Bahamas dropped a 4-1 decision as Jordan Archer went 1-for-3 with an RBI; Elvis Pardo was also 1-for-3.and Deandre Williams was 1-for-2.

Head coach Donavan Cox, from Grand Bahama, said the team that consisted of players from Grand Bahama, Grand Bahama and Abaco, said they fell apart in the game against the Dominican Republic.

“We fell apart mentally. We made one or two mistakes again,” said Cox, who was assisted by Albert Cartwright. “We let our offensive performances flow into our defensive performances. I think the critical plays on defence were where we fell short.”

Despite getting eliminated, Cox said Team Bahamas’ pitching was pretty good. 

“Pitching was really good. The pitchers really did their thing,” Cox said. “I just feel we have to bring our bats together.”

With players as young as 14 and 15 years old, Cox said with such a young team, they have a core group that could return next year with a vengeance.

“Now that they have a taste of what it is to play internationally against these other countries, I think they will put things together and the team next year will be even better than this year,” Cox said.

Archer, the shortstop, said they didn’t do what they were supposed to do, which was to make fewer errors, hit the ball and do their part on the bases.

“I think we could have done better playing field wise by making our plays and having better communication,” Archer said. “The first two games, kind of didn’t go our way.

“This game should have gone our way from the way we started. We started with energy and we didn’t end with energy.”

Overall, Archer said the team grew closer together and if they can continue to work on that, they can turn things around next year and hopefully have a better shot at winning the tournament.

Before playing their final two games, Team Bahamas was blanked 3-0 by Puerto Rico B team in their opener and came back and routed Costa Rica 15-0.