Dec. 8, 2006 — The Thymes stormed into the finals of the Quarren Schjang womens softball league Friday night by blasting Outkast 16-2, led by a strong four-hit pitching effort from their ace, Jennifer Brady.
Outkast, on the other hand, had major pitching problems as their ace, Lashonda Stevens, had problems finding the plate. She walked nine batters before getting pulled in the second inning.
The Thymes have moved on to meet Players Choice in a best-of-five final series beginning Sunday. Top hitters for the Thymes were Inocencia Messer, 4-5 with four RBIs; Sasha Brady, 1-2 with two RBIs; and Lisa Thomas, 1-3 with two RBIs. For Outkast, Rochella Samuel went 1-3 with an RBI.
Batting first, Outkast came up with one run in the top of the first on an error by Thymes' catcher Marisol Somme. In the bottom of the inning, the Thymes capitalized on Stevens' pitching wildness. She walked in four runs and an RBI single by Lisa Thomas to put five runs on the board, leaving the Thymes with a 5-1 lead at the end of one.
After Outkast failed to score in the top of the first, the walk-a-thon started again for Stevens in the bottom of the second. She walked five consecutive batters, walking in one run in the process. This prompted Manager Reuben Mercado to make a pitching change to Najare Samuel, who finally got the side out — but not before the Thymes scored an additional six runs on RBI singles by Inocencia Messer and Sasha Brady, RBI walks drawn by Zahra ORielley and Lisa Thomas and two unearned runs. That brought the Thymes lead to 12-1 at the end of two complete innings.
After a scoreless third inning, Outkast again failed to score in the top of the fourth and the Thymes added two unearned runs off three Outkast errors to push their lead to 13 at 14-1.
The fifth inning was another scoreless one, and the teams went to the sixth with Outkast still facing a very high hill to climb if they wanted to get back in the game. They got one run on an RBI double off the bat of Rochella Samuel for their second run of the game, now trailing 14-2. In the bottom of the inning, RBI singles by Messer and Shae Roberts pushed the lead to 14 at 16-2.
Outkast went quietly in the top of the seventh. As a result, the two teams that ran first and second in the regular season, Sluggers and Outkast, were sent home in the first round of the playoffs by the teams that came in third and fourth. These two teams, Players Choice and the Thymes, both laden with veterans, now meet in the finals starting Sunday at the DC Canegata Ball park in Christiansted.
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