Dwayne Abbott and Ceneca Lindo Memorial Fastpitch Softball Tournament
The Department of Sports, Parks, and Recreation hosted a fastpitch softball tournament this weekend in memory of two men who were members of the softball community on St. Thomas. Dwayne Abbott and Ceneca Lindo both lost their lives recently in separate incidents. Their loss has had a profound impact on the softball community here in St. Thomas. They both were members of the Griffith Park Massive softball team. Teams came from St. Croix to join local teams to make up this four-male team and two female team softball event.
2022-01-31 12:29:00 - VI News Staff
Griffith Park Massive 16 – Spartans 8
The home team started slowly but righted the ship as St. Thomas Griffith Park Massive came back to beat the St. Croix Spartans 16–8 on Friday evening at the Emile Griffith Ballpark in the Memorial Fastpitch Softball Tournament.
The Spartans wasted no time getting on the board as they sent nine batters to the plate in the top half of the first inning. Javier Velez, Shakeel Newton, and Andanskee Henry all registered hits in the opening inning for the Spartans. GPM didn’t help their cause defensively as their errors led to three more Spartans’ runs in the top of the second.
Griffith Park Massive finally started showing life signs in the bottom of the second, scoring three runs in the inning. They added five more runs in the bottom of the third, capped off by Andre Peters’s two-run inside the park homerun giving GPM a one-point lead at the end of three innings. In the top of the fourth, Jerald Gooding came in to pitch for GPM and shut down the Spartans allowing no hits and no runs. Griffith Park Massive scored seven runs in the bottom of the fourth, putting the game out of reach.
Gooding was the winning pitcher for GPM, while Maximo Santana was saddled with the loss. Peters, Akeem Francis, Kyle Lamotta, Lloyd Jackson, and Luke all registered two hits for Griffith Park Massive. The Spartan’s seven hits were scattered.
Llacos 5 – Los Rumis 4
In the nightcap on Friday evening, Llacos escaped with a one-run victory over Los Rumis in an exhilarating 5-4 game in the Fastpitch Memorial Softball Tournament held at the Emile Griffith Ballpark.
Pitching was the overwhelming factor in this contest. Edwin Otero pitched a complete game for the Llacos and struck out seven batters. He kept Los Rumis scoreless until the top of the third inning, where Yan Garcia hit an inside-the-park home run on a line drive to left field, plating three runs for the Los Rumis. Llacos responded in the bottom of the third. In that frame, Levron Sarauw Jr. doubled on a fly ball to right field.