A fine performance by pitcher Ihsanullah helped Army dethrone Wapda from the top and won the 19th National Baseball Championship title by 12-2 score at the Iqbal Park Sports Complex here on Wednesday. Ihsanullah, who has recently returned back from South Korea after getting modern training for two months in pitching on scholarship, did not allow any Wapda batter to settle down. Army and Wapda scored two runs each in the first innings. Army scored through Iftikhar Hussain, who hit the home-run and Arshad Khan contributed one run while for Wapda Sumair Zawar scored one and Zaheer Butt hit home-run.
Army added one more run in the second innings through Arslan, while Wapda failed to move ahead. In the third innings no run was scored. Army plundered three more runs in the fourth innings as Arshad Khan and Majeed hit home-run and Imtiaz Ali chipped in with one run. The fifth innings yielded no run, while in the sixth innings Army maintaining its offensive batting earned two more runs from Arshad and Imtiaz.
In the seventh innings, Zafar Junior hit grand-slam home-hit with all the three bases were filled to add four runs and to complete the tally. At the end, president Pakistan Federation Baseball Shaukat Javed distributed the prizes. He announced that the PFB had decided to dedicate its National Department Championship to the name of Shaheed Iftikhar Iqbal, who was an international baseball player from Army and had sacrificed his life in Wana operation.
Meanwhile, secretary Khawar Shah said that 22 players had been picked from the championship and some more would be picked from the Shahid Iftikhar Iqbal National Departmental Championship which will be held in February, to select a best national team for the upcoming first East-West Baseball Championship to be held by Pakistan in Lahore in April this year.