29 Jun 2022

Panthers women team followers left the National Diamond stadium with their heads down on Sunday after their team suffered a 3-5 loss to Vikings.

Panthers, which took the lead in the second inning by three points, gave their fans hope to qualify for the Selebi Phikwe Extravaganza due in two weeks.

The two teams were battling it out for the last slot of the 2022 Selebi Phikwe Softball Extravaganza.

It was evident that Vikings were not going to allow their opponents to deny them a chance to be part of the extravaganza as they turned the tables winning 5-3 to join other women teams Police IX, BDF IX and Titans, which had already qualified for the meet.

The four teams from the south will compete with their counterparts from the north. 

Police IX were the first to qualify after clobbering UB Giants 8-2 and went on to hammer BDF IX 5-2 and lastly beating Panthers 2-1.

BDF IX thrashed UB Giants 6-5 and walloped Vikings 2-1 to book themselves a slot.

The third team to make it was Titans after annihilating Wells 10-5 and went on to whitewash Vikings 3-0 and humiliating the defending champions Bears by a wide margin 7-0.

Vikings had tough qualifying games as they lost their first match to Wells by 5-6 and 0-3 to Titans in their second match.

Vikings redeemed themselves when they beat Bears 6-5 and lost to BDF IX 1-2 before hammering Panthers 5-3 to book themselves the last slot.

This year’s tournament will be played without the defending champions, Bears, which won the cup in 2019.

The tournament was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Bears won their first game on Saturday by hammering Wells 8-6 and lost their second match to Vikings 5-6 and  0-7 to Titans before Panthers put the last nail to the coffin by hammering them 3-1.

 In a post-match interview, Panthers coach Tony Moyo said his charges started the game well as they had planned, but failed to defend well on the third inning, which saw them allowing Vikings batters to easily bat good balls away and ended up being punished.

For his part, the winning coach Gomolemo Tshelametsi said they never give up easily and encouraged his team to stay focused and do what is right in the pitch.

The men’s elimination games will be held at the National Diamond and University of Botswana grounds July 1-3. ENDS