By Bob Fromer
Sunday 28 June – It wasn’t entirely unexpected that the GB Men’s Fastpitch Team would lose to the defending champions New Zealand in their first game on the field at the 14th WBSC Men’s World Championships in Saskatoon.
GB didn’t play badly, but in the end, New Zealand power, a couple of errors and a few wild pitches and passed balls at inopportune times gave the Black Sox a 9-1 six-inning victory in front of around 1000 spectators at the Bob Van Impe Stadium.
GB’s lone run came on a line drive home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the fifth inning hit by catcher Darrin Newson.
That made the score 6-1 to New Zealand at the time, but the Black Sox scored three more runs in the top of the sixth, and GB went down quickly in the bottom of the inning, with New Zealand right-hander Nik Hayes ending the game on a strikeout to give him eight on the day to go with just two hits and one walk allowed.
Both teams are now sitting at 1-1 in the tournament after New Zealand unexpectedly lost to Argentina 3-2 on Friday while GB had a walkover 7-0 win against Indonesia, a late withdrawal from the tournament. GB were thus the last team in the competition to actually get on the field, and it couldn’t have been against a more daunting opponent.
Today, Sunday, GB will have slightly easier opposition when they face a familiar foe, the European champions Czech Republic, at 1.00 pm in Canada (8.00 pm in the UK for those watching on webstream). The Czechs are also 1-1, having clobbered the Philippines 12-5 on Friday and then been clobbered in turn, 10-2, by the host team Canada on Saturday.
A win over the Czechs will be crucial to GB’s hopes of getting to the playoffs and finishing – as they did two years ago in New Zealand, as the highest-placed European team at the World Championships.
Starting early
New Zealand scored runs in every inning except the second against GB starting pitcher Kyle Linton and then reliever James Darby, who came in to record the final out of the fifth inning and went on to give up the decisive three runs in the sixth.
But at first, the runs came slowly, and the game stayed relatively close through the first four innings.
Leadoff walks are always a bad idea, and that’s what led to New Zealand taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Second baseman Jerome Raemaki drew the walk off Kyle Linton, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a sharp two-out single to centre field by DP Brad Rona.
GB also had a quick start in the bottom of the first inning, as leadoff hitter Ryan Martin drove a single up the middle against Nik Hayes. But shortstop David Hutton, after failing to bunt, hit into a 1-6-3 double play and third baseman Kevin Stockford bounced out to his opposite number to end the frame.
GB would only have one other hit in the game – Darrin Newson’s home run – and one other baserunner, when Luke Peters drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the third inning.
The second inning was scoreless, with each pitcher recording a couple of strikeouts, but New Zealand picked an unearned run in the top of the third. With two outs, Thomas Enoka singled. The next hitter, Brad Rona, drove a smash towards shortstop. David Hutton made a fine play to knock the ball down, but his flip towards Ryan Martin at second base for the force out got past Ryan into right field and Enoka scored.
New Zealand made it 3-0 in the top of the fourth on a double by Nathan Nukunuku, a passed ball, and a beautiful squeeze bunt laid down by Stephen Ratu.
Acceleration
So through four innings, the game was still within reach for GB, at least in theory, with the score at 3-0.
But in the top of the fifth inning, the Black Sox turned on the power. A lead-off triple by shortstop Tyson Byrne, a double by Thomas Enoka and then a two-out fly ball to centre field by the powerful Nathan Nukunuku that simply kept going until it cleared the fence produced three quick runs and broke the game open. After Kyle Linton walked the next batter, Campbell Makea, James Darby took over in the circle and struck out Stephen Ratu to end the bleeding at 6-0.
And then it was 6-1 following the Darrin Newson two-out home run in the bottom of the fifth inning, a line drive on a two-strike count that shot over the fence in left field.
At that point, GB were hoping to escape a mercy rule loss, but were unable to do so as New Zealand scored three more times in the top of the sixth.
Wildness has often been an issue for GB stalwart James Darby, and a one-out walk to Jerome Raemaki, followed by a hit batter, got things started for the Black Sox. The runners moved up on a wild pitch, Thomas Enoka’s single drove them in, and then Enoka scored on another wild pitch before Ben Enoka’s line drive to short led to a double play that got GB out of the inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, pinch-hitter Kenny Pregnell bounced back to the pitcher and Nik Hayes struck out Ryan Martin and David Hutton to end the game.
GB Head Coach Norman Ames said, "Team GB were up against it in the first real game of the Worlds against the defending champs in NZ. The game against Indonesia didn't occur on Day 1 as they withdrew, so we've had two days between games whereas the Black Sox played a tight game Friday night, losing 3-2 to Argentina. Of course we were expecting to go out hard against New Zealand but execution of plays is key against a top-quality team like this and unfortunately for us New Zealand executed them to perfection and we couldn't on a few plays. We are now looking forward to the Czech game which could be pivotal to making the playoffs or not."
Looking ahead
For GB, getting the Black Sox out of the way early may be no bad thing, as the team has now got a feel for the competition and can look to more winnable games ahead in the search for the three more wins in five games that will almost certainly secure a playoff spot.
After the Czech Republic later today, which could be the key game, GB will face Guatemala (currently 0-2 with no runs scored) on Monday and the Philippines (1-1 but the win was a forfeit from Indonesia) on Tuesday. After that, things will get tougher, with Canada on Wednesday and the powerful Argentines on Thursday, so GB will hope to have their four wins in the bag before those last two games.
Scores
Results from the first two days of the tournament are:
FRIDAY POOL A
Czech Republic 12, Philippines 5
GB 7, Indonesia 0 (forfeit)
Canada 6, Guatemala 0
Argentina 3, New Zealand 2
FRIDAY POOL B
Dominican Republic 8, Denmark 1
Venezuela 11, Netherlands 1
Australia 1, Japan 0
USA 7, Mexico 0
SATURDAY POOL A
Philippines 7, Indonesia 0 (forfeit)
Argentina 7, Guatemala 0
Canada 10, Czech Republic 2
New Zealand 9, GB 1
SATURDAY POOL B
USA 6, Dominican Republic 4
Japan 5, Denmark 2
Australia 8, Netherlands 0
Venezuela 6, Mexico 1