Beacons Softball Club Wins Second Consecutive National Title
Goodnight and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday, I am Paul Lopez. “Set your goals high and don’t stop until you get there”. That’s a famous quote from American Baseball Player, Bo Jackson. Over the weekend, the Belize National Softball Federation resumed the Thirty-First Women’s Softball National Tournament in Belize City, after the event rained out last weekend. The first of the two matches of the day was between the Beacon Softball Club and Roaring Creek Grace Kennedy. After two hours of play-time, Beacons Softball Club won the match five to four runs, securing their spot in the championship match against Camalote Play Chune.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
We are at the bottom of the second inning; Delsie Lizama for Beacons is on second base. Mardy Nicholson is batting. The ball is pitched and Nicholson sends it down the line along third base. Shanae Williams is unable to stop that one. Lizama sprints from second base and makes it home safe. The third base umpire calls the hit a foul ball, but the home base umpire says it’s a fair ball. That’s one run for Beacon. We are now at the top of the third inning. Nadira Coye is up to bat for Camalote Play Chune. Lin Perez is on second base. Coye connects and sends the ball down the middle. Perez sprints from second towards home base.The catcher makes an incredible effort to receive the throw, but Perez slips past her.
The catcher is unable to keep hold of the throw. That is one run for Camalote to tie the game. It’s the top of the fifth inning. Patricia Budna is up to bat for Camalote Play Tunes. Runners are on second and third with two outs. The ball is pitched to Budna. The ball gets away from the catcher. Samantha Casey sprints to the home plate and she is safe. That is two runs for Camalote Play Chune to take the lead. At the bottom of the fifth inning, ball is pitched to Kesilyn Lizama. She hits the ball towards second base. Kendall Morgan sprints from second to third base. The ball is thrown to third base. That’s a bad throw and a costly error as Morgan runs down the line to the home plate to secure a second run for Beacon.
This is the top of the sixth inning. Teesha Lewis is up to bat for Camalote. Nadira Coye is on second base. Lewis hits the ball towards the left field. Coye sprints to third base and then to the home plate. She takes a dive and makes it home safe. That is a third run for Camalote. Here at the bottom of the sixth inning, Mardy Nicholson is on third base for Beacon. The ball is pitched and the catcher is unable to hold the ball. Nicholson sprints down the line to the home plate and slides in to secure a third run for her team to tie the game. The teams have been exchanging runs in the last two innings, but it all came down to the seventh and final winning.
Camalote Play Chune was unable to make any runs at the top of the seventh. Beacon now has the opportunity at the bottom of the seventh to win the tournament with just one run. Kesilyn Lizama has made it all the way to third base. Christy Cherry is up to bat with two outs. Here is the pitch from Shandi Orellano. Cherry hits the ball across the left field to send Lizama home and secure the win. So there you have it folks, Beacon Softball Club is your back-to-back National Softball Champions.
And from softball we move into some basketball action. A contingent of six over-fifty-five basketball players from Belize represented the country in Sixteenth World Maxi Basketball Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Team Belize defeated seven teams over the last week to make it to the gold medal match against Puerto Rico, despite the fact that they only took six players to compete against full teams from countries with populations much bigger than Belize. That gold medal match was held on Sunday. Here is a recap.
Belize takes control of the tip-off. There is the drive to the basket and that’s a foul. Belize is in possession of the ball at the top of the three-point line. The ball is passed just outside the paint. There is the spin on the defender and that’s an easy layup for Belize. Pass from just above the free throw line to number thirteen for team Belize. And that’s another two points for Belize. On the other end of the court, number thirteen for Puerto Rico lets off a three point shot and that is money. Here number thirteen for Puerto Rico is left alone on the right corner. He steps in and fires off for another two points.
Number thirteen drives in the ball. He passes it under the rim to his teammate who goes up strong for the layup. At the start of the second half, the game is tied at thirty-eight points apiece. Here is a beautiful pass on the inside that leads to a quick shot from number ten for team Belize. And that is two points. Moments later, Frank Williams is at the three point line. He puts it up and it scores. Three minutes left in the third quarter, Belize is down by three points. Number twelve for Puerto Rico finds the opening along the baseline. He goes in for the easy layup to extend the lead. In the final quarter of the match, down by six points, Belize’s Douglas Finland with the fast break down the court for two-point layup.
With five minutes left in this match, Puerto Rico has extended their lead by nine points. Number twenty-one for team Belize banks a long range shot for three points. Despite their best effort, Puerto Rico would go on to win the match with seventy-six points to Belize’s sixty-three. Team Belize secured the tournament’s silver medal, leaving their mark as the second best team in the world in the over fifty-five category.
On the local basketball scene, fans are in for another spectacular season of the Benny’s Inter-Office Basketball League. The season officially began on Thursday night with fourteen teams signed up. The big question here is which team will take home the 2023 rings? We send a huge shout-out to all the organizers of this tournament. Of course, we will be bringing you coverage of the 2023 as the season progress.
And in Volleyball, Nicaragua is set to host this year’s Senior Women’s Central American Volleyball Championship from September sixth to the thirteen. Our Senior National Women’s Team left the country on Sunday en-route to Nicaragua. We say all the best to team Belize as they compete.
Well folks, that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.