Accra, Dec 14, GNA - La Yahoshua School on Tuesday won the maiden Baseball Ghana Foundation (BGF) Junior Secondary School (JSS) Baseball Tournament beating Rangoon JSS 4-2 in an exciting final. The event, which is to rekindle the floundering interest of the sport among the youth, had pupils from four schools slug things out. Other schools that took part in the competition, which took place at the La Yahoshua School Park, were Association International School and La Wireless JSS.

On their way to the finals La Yahoshua beat La Wireless 11-0 whilst Association International JSS lost 1-13 to Rangoon in the first round. In the second round, Rangoon beat Wireless 7-0 while Yahoshua accounted for Association International 12-1. The event, which was sponsored by ITEQ Imaging Technologies Ghana Limited saw all the participating schools each taking home baseball equipment comprising two baseball bats, five gloves, a chest protector, four helmet, a pair of shin guard 5 baseballs and 10 rubber ball all donated by Premier Production Limited.

Nana Adjoa Awindor, Managing Director of Premier Production said the items presented were part of $10,000 worth of baseball equipment bought by his company to be given to schools all over the country. She urged all who have baseball at heart to join the crusade of BGF to give kids of this country an alternative. Mr Albert Frimpong, Chief Executive Officer of BGF in an address said the event, which is going to be an annual affair will expand to comprise about 30 schools next year. Mr Frimpong, who is one of the pioneers of the game on the local scene, said the baseball national team, Rising Stars during their playing days was a major force on the continent. He said this early success could be mainly attributed to the technical and logistic support the team had from Japanese who, for years, were the backbone of baseball in Ghana.

"Things took a turn for the worse with the exit of the Japanese as the sport was left without a major sponsor. "It is really sad that now there is little or no help at all from any quarter and this is really affecting the development of the sport. "As far back as 1997, I formed BGF but did not have time to work on its ideals as I was then involved with the national baseball team." Mr Frimpong said after the frustrations encountered whilst playing, "I decided after consulting a few friends to resurrect BGF with the aim of development/promotion of baseball, education and entertainment of the youth. Among those present were a representatives from the U.S, Mr Joe Parker, CEO of ITEQ who is also a patron of the foundation.