The Fire Department softball team evened the best three out of five championship series against the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital Injectables with a resounding 16-2 shellacking Thursday night in the Governmental and Industrial Softball league at the D.C. Canegata Ball Park.
Fire ace Paul “Pablo” Christian scattered seven hits and allowed just two runs in pitching his team to the series-tying victory.
The Injectables came in on a high after winning the championship opener last Tuesday by a score of 17-9. But unlike that game — where chants of “Injectables, inside de fire house, ay-yai-yai, oy-yo-yo” rang out from the winning dugout — all was mostly silent Thursday. It appeared Fire was so hot they scorched the Injectables’ vocal cords.
After a scoreless first inning, Fire got off to a good start in the top of the second inning, plating five runs to take the early lead, and they did not look back. Two-run singles by Steve Simmonds and Raydel Robinson and an RBI double by Arthur Canaii accounted for the Fire runs. The Injectables had no answer in their half of the inning.
After Fire failed to score in the top of the third, the Injectables scored the only two runs they would muster in the game on a two-run single by Rael Sackey to trail 5-2 at the end of three innings. From that point on it was all Fire.
Ronnie Schjang delivered a two-run single in the top of the fourth to extend the Fire lead to five at 7-2. Fire then exploded for eight more runs in the top of the fifth on a two-run home run by Mario Christian, a three-run triple by Leon Lang, and RBI triple, double and single by Schjang, Canaii and Simmonds respectively to all but put the game away with a lead of 13 at 15-2.
A sacrifice fly by Simmonds in the top of the fifth closed out the scoring for the game with a final score of 16-2.
Paul Christian got the win on the hill for Fire in a dominating performance, while Julio Perez took the loss. Top batters for Fire were Mario Christian (4 for 5 with a home run and two RBIs), Simmonds (4 for 5 with three RBIs), and Schjang and Canaii were both (3 for 5 with three RBIs). For the Injectables, Sackey was 1 for 3 with two RBIs, Rashaun Foster 2 for 3, and Roger Moore was 1 for 1.
