By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Jamarli “Hul” James, scores tying the game at 5-5
In 2022 and 2023, the Pirates swept Power Outage in the Virgin Islands Softball Baseball Association Men’s best of five Championship Series. Power Outage returned the favor on Saturday night, when they completed their back to back sweep by scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning—the last on a pass ball—to beat the Pirates in a comeback 6-5 thriller, after losing pitcher Oscar Sanchez hit a grand slam, putting them in a 4-0 first inning deficit.
It is Power Outage’s fifth title in 11 years, as they and the Pirates have had a lock on the men’s titles since 2014.
Sanchez was 2-for-4, accounting for half the Pirates hits. He scored once and had 4 RBI’s, then struck out 14 Power Outage batsmen. Eurys Robles went 2-for-3 as Power Outage’s top hitter and scored a run. Sheldon John was 1-for-4 with a run batted in. Jorge Rijo fanned 13 during the victory.
“I wanted an exciting game and that is what we had here in this last one. It could have been different, but this was awesome,” Power Outage manager Roy Barry told Island Sun Sports. “It showed how much heart we have. We continued to fight, we continued to be persistent, and in the last inning, we put a strategy together where we’re going to fake a bunt. And when you fake those bunts, he (Sanchez) throws a lot of balls. Once runners are on base, there’s a specific pitch he throws that the catcher can’t handle and we’ll always score runs.”
Right Fielder Jamal “Lefty” Allen, said that Power Outage goes down fighting and it was a good game. “I’m not going to lie, the four-run homer gave them a jump start and a little momentum, but seven innings is nothing for us,” he noted. “We just bite back and bite back and come out on top. The final run scored mostly off patience. We saw that the pitcher was struggling, he was sweating, the lead off man got on. After that, the second one got on and bit by bit, we put more pressure on them, exercised a little more patience and we got it (winning run) off a pass ball. A win is a win.”
Sanchez said that it was a do or die game and they came in with a game plan. “We followed through all the way through the entire game. I was very consistent, but a little error here and there cost us a few runs that put us at the very end of the short stick of the game,” he said, noting that the winning run was on a pass ball. “We stayed inside as in the entire game plan that we wanted on all the batters and it dropped too much in between the catcher and it got away from him and that cost us the game.”
Tecius “TC” Frett said that the Pirates, while they executed, still made a few errors ‘that cost us the game.’ “Oscar pitched a helluva game, dominating both sides of the plate. You could see that Power Outage wasn’t hitting the ball at all tonight like that,” Frett said. “Just the errors. We have to stop making errors—that’s all it comes down to—discipline on the field.”
Pure Problems Forfeits
Pure Problems failed to show for the women’s game and forfeited to Synergy who swept the series for their fifth straight championship. Pure Problems on Monday issued an apology for not fielding a team.
“This is not the outcome any of us wanted,” the statement said. “After receiving what was communicated as the final schedule from the Softball association, our players made personal and professional commitments based on that information, trusting, as we all did, that it would be honored. Unfortunately, the championship game was later rescheduled outside the agreed upon timeline.”
In its statement, VI Softball Baseball Association noted that Friday’s game had to be rescheduled because of a scheduled BVI Electricity Corporation power outage. In keeping with its rain out and scheduling policy, Friday games are rescheduled to Saturday and Sunday games, if cancelled, are rescheduled to Thursday.
“All affected teams were promptly notified. While most teams agreed to the adjustment, Pure Problems expressed concern via WhatsApp and later submitted a formal complaint by email, explaining that some players had prior commitments…and requested that the game be moved to Sunday. It is important to note that all teams have an 18-player roster, which allows for substitutions,” the statement said, noting that Synergy confirmed their preference to proceed with the adjusted schedule. “Pure Problems was notified of the final decision and subsequently decided to forfeit the game. This forfeiture thereby resulted in Synergy being awarded Game 3 and becoming the 2025 Women’s Division champions.”
