The Saint Andrews Hurricanes under Athletic Director Peter Wilson has done it again, for the second straight year the school has shown its dominance in the softball league again this year his year they have won titles in three of the four divisions in The Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools softball championships.

On Thursday, the Hurricanes defended and retained both their senior girls and boy?s crown as well as they secured the junior boys title for 2008. Saint Andrews was not able to win the junior girls crown that they won in 2007. St. Augustine?s College is the junior girls champions this year.

In the decisive game three of the junior boys crown, the Hurricanes easily blew past Kingsway Academy Saints, 12-2. The Saints won game one putting a damper on the spirits of the Hurricanes who have been searching for the junior boys crown for several years.

With the defeat in game one, the Hurricanes came into games two and three more focused than they were all through the regular season and pulled off the victory according to coach Pat Chiarello.

His team went undefeated all through the season and even won the pennant but lost when it mattered most.

Chiarello said in game two, his team showed no mercy against a hard fighting Saints team and won inning 10-3 with pitchers Ashton Butler and Justin Higgs taking command.

?I was confident in my team that they could pull out a victory after losing out last year. I was somewhat surprised that they lost game one, but I had to stay relaxed as their coach and had to remained confident in them letting them see that I was,? said Chiarello.

Within minutes of the junior boys victory, the senior girls were celebrating their win after topping the Saint Augustine?s College Big Red Machine for the second consecutive year 11-6 in the decisive game.

Coach Elizabeth Phillips said she was proud of her girls as they worked all season long being and went unbeaten.

?After the first loss, we had to make some changes as I moved Jay Strachan from catcher to short stop, Annisa Albury from short stop to catcher and our first year player Daria Knowles from third base to pitcher and it all worked out in our favour,? said Phillips.

With the Hurricanes winning the senior girls and junior boys crown, the senior boys captured their second consecutive title on the same field the junior boys won their title.

The Hurricanes defeated Saint Anne?s Blue Waves 10-6 in their decisive game three with senior Jared Higgs the winning pitcher.

by Bernard Newbold