19 Jul 2017

Police IX female softball team retained the Selebi Phikwe Softball Extravaganza championship and walked away with P75 000, a trophy and gold medals.

The champions walloped runner-ups, Panthers  7-2 in the final that was played at Mowana Grounds in Selebi Phikwe on Monday. Panthers took home silver medals and P40 000. Rail Giants on the third spot pocketed P28 000 and bronze medals while BDF IX in position four won P23 000. Wells came fifth and collected P18 000, Scramblers on position six took home P14000 while Carats and Comets on position seven and eight respectively walked away with P12 000 each.

The most valuable player award in the women’s category went to Mathami Tinah from Police IX who took home P2 000. The ‘best slugger’ and ‘best outfielder’ awards were scooped by Boitshwarelo Sefo from Panthers and Goitseone Monyadzwe from Rail Giants respectively who took home P1 500 each.

In the men’s category, defending champions BDF IX did not even reach the semi-finals but rather ended on a disappointing sixth spot. The 2017 champions, Wells took the reigns after walloping Panthers 3-2 in a tough and tight encounter in the final.

Wells also took home P75 000, gold medals and a trophy while Panthers in position two won P40 000 and silver medals. Rail Giants, also in position three in the male category, won P28 000 and bronze medals while new comers in the tournament, Ghetto Yankees took position four and walked away with P23 000.

Police IX came fifth and took home P18 000 while BDF IX on position six took home P14 000. Comets and Rebels on position seven and eight respectively were given P12 000 each.

The most valuable player award of P2 000 and ‘best slugger’ award of P1 500 in the men’s category both went to Tiro Mazubu from Panthers while the best ‘out fielder’ award went to Baolopi Thamuku from Wells.

In an interview after the games, the technical director of the Selebi Phikwe Softball Extravaganza, Lebofanye Kenosi said he was impressed with the overall outcome of the tournament. He said the 2017 extravaganza was bigger and better.

He added that attendance was high with people filling up the stands all the days of the tournament which started on Saturday and ended on Monday.

He also said organisers, empires and administrators handled the tournament with professionalism. He commended SPEDU which had partnered with the softball extravaganza for making the event a success. He said even the sponsors of the event such as Bridgestone, Komatsu, Puma Energy, Stanlib, Investec, Syringa Lodge, Botsogo Health Care, Momentum Health Botswana and Marge Consulting among others showed enthusiasm and were impressed with the outcome of the tournament.

A member of the local organising committee and representative of Botswana Softball Association, Oeme Morupisi also said he was happy with the outcome of the tournament. He said he was particularly impressed with the level of play during the tournament, which he said was good though some players were not around because they had been selected to join the national softball team that represented the country at the World Series in Canada.

He said players competing in the extravaganza had displayed good skill and performance.

The Selebi Phikwe Softball Extravaganza, which is an annual event kicked off on Friday with a sponsors’ gala dinner at Syringa Lodge which was attended by team players, sponsors and administrators of the event. The mayor of Selebi

Phikwe, Molosiwa Molosiwa welcomed visitors to Selebi Phikwe at the dinner, and by virtue that SPEDU was the official partner of the Selebi Phikwe extravaganza, the chief executive officer of SPEDU, Mokubung Mokubung gave a statement  about SPEDU and the softball extravaganza at the dinner while the local organising committee chairperson, Dan Mahupela who was also in attendance, gave some remarks about the softball extravaganza. Senior government officials also attended the occasion. BOPA