Jelissa "Shelley"Potter adjudged short at 3rd, but not before she had hit two homers, a double and a triple to lead the Pythons to a 13-7 victory in game one of the Championship series. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

Thea Cooke took the win for the Pythons from the mound giving up no hits and no runs in 4 of the 6 innings pitched. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

J'heane Niles homered for the Hawks in the 2nd inning. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

Winning Pitcher, Thea Cooke held the Hawks to no hits and no runs at the top of the first inning before Potter went to the plate for the Pythons and smashed her first Home Run deep into centre left field to open the scoring. Sheniqua “Bam Bam” Fahie also came home on the hit to make the score 2-0, before Darier “Ace” Malone made it 3 following a fumble in left field. Before the innings closed, both Ivy Cameron-Fahie and Bria Smith added to the score to give the Pythons a 5-0 lead.

The Hawks came right back into the game in the 2nd inning scoring 4 from the at bat of J’heane Niles, who Homered and also brought home Judith Harrigan, Renee Hodge and Shanice Forbes. The Pythons though countered with another Potter home run, this time to centre field and “Bam Bam” who reached home plate before Malone, Cameron-Fahie and Smith were all caught in left field.

With the score at 7-4, Cooke quickly closed the third inning with the help of Kennisha Powell whose alert fielding saw Eleta Parker caught short attempting to reach 1st. Parker, who would take the loss for the Hawks, found “Bam Bam” too hot to handle in the bottom of the third as her home run to right field also scored Cooke and Kia Barry to make it 10-4.

Cooke again took care of business in the 4th as Hodge, Forbes and Niles failed to reach 1st base before the Pythons increased their lead to 13-4 with Cameron-Fahie, Smith and Powell adding to the score.

Faced with a “Do or Die” 5th inning, the Hawks responded in great fashion as Cooke struggled to gain control. Misha Walters reached 1st on a wild throw from Malone and a succession of base on ball pitches allowed Walters, George and Hodge home to reduce the arrears to 13-7.

The bottom of the 5th saw the Pythons fail to score despite Potter’s double. Malone popped up to be caught, Potter was adjudged out at 3rd and Cameron-Fahie was brilliantly caught by Parker as she drilled on straight back at the Pitcher.

The 6th inning saw Walters and Georges out swinging on full counts and Hodge brilliantly caught short of 1st by a pick up and throw on the run from Malone before Powell rounded the bases to score the winning run for the Pythons. Game 2 is on Saturday.

In the Men’s Division, the Hurricanes defeated the Reds 7-4 to complete a 3-0 sweep and move on to the Championship Series. The Hurricanes had 7 hits, 2 errors and left 8 runners on base. The Reds had 6 hits, 2 errors and left 8 runners on base. The winning pitcher was Roy Hill and the loser was Jason Fonseca. Rhodni Skelton of the Hurricanes was 1-4 with a home run, 2 runs scored and 4 runs batted in and Sheldon John was 2-3 with a run scored and a run batted in. Six Reds players had 1 hit each.

The East Invaders also completed a clean sweep of Street Ballerz, winning the decisive game by forfeit as Street Ballerz did not make the trip from Virgin Gorda.

The two winning teams face off next weekend in the start of a best of seven series.