Auckland, New Zealand: March 2 -- GB Men's Fastpitch Team pitcher James Darby threw a second straight high-quality start at the ISF Men's World Championships here today, striking out 11 against a hard-hitting Venezuelan team and giving up only three hits. But the GB offense was absent for a second straight day, and the result was a very tough 1-0 loss to an experienced Venezuelan side ranked among the top six teams in the world.
Following the 2-0 loss to Samoa yesterday, that leaves the GB Team needing some upsets later in the round-robin stage if they hope to get to the playoffs.
Pitchers' Duel
Like the game against Samoa, this was a pitchers' duel from start to finish, with James Darby going against Venezuelan starter Joan Colombo, who threw five strong innings and left after GB catcher Kevin Stockford opened the top of the sixth with a single. Colombo struck eight in his five innings of work, but gave up only three singles while walking one and hitting a GB batter.
However, the pitcher who replaced Colombo, Ramon Jones, was even better, facing seven GB hitters and striking out five of them swinging to close out the game, including three straight strikeouts after pinch-hitter Morgan Ottridge had opened the top of the seventh inning for GB by drawing a walk.
Altogether, 13 of the 21 GB outs came on strikeouts, and offensively, that's not going to get the job done, despite the GB Team playing its second straight errorless game on defense and James Darby racking up 19 strikeouts in 12 innings over the first two games of the tournament.
Chances
GB did have more baserunners in this game than against Samoa, and the occasional glimmer of a scoring chance.
The best opportunity was probably in the top of the first inning, when GB second baseman and leadoff hitter Ryan Martin was hit by the first pitch of the game, and left fielder Darrin Newson drew a one-out walk after Joan Colombo was called for an illegal pitch, advancing Ryan to second. But Rich Haldane and James Darby each struck out swinging on four pitches, and the threat was over.
After that, Ryan Martin reached base again on an error in the top of the third inning (but was called out for interference on Kevin Stockford's grounder), James Chalmers singled with one out in the fifth, Kevin Stockford led off the sixth inning with a single and Morgan Ottridge led off the seventh with a walk. But none of those runners got beyond first base.
Deciding run
Venezuela scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, and as in the game against Samoa, the run was scored following a walk.
Iran Paez led off the inning with a single, and tried to steal second with one out, but was gunned down by catcher Kevin Stockford. That seemed to have ended the danger, but Rafael Flores then drew a walk and Venezuelan first baseman John Zambrano drove a double to left-centre field for the only extra-base hit of the contest, with Flores scoring all the way from first.
And that, as it turned out, was the ball game.
Venezuela did mount one more scoring threat, in the bottom of the sixth, when Iran Paez was hit by a pitch and Rafael Flores walked with two out. But this time, James Darby was able to hold John Zambrano to a harmless fly ball out.
No shame
GB Manager Steve Fullan said: "GB should not feel ashamed to lose 1-0 to a World Top Six team and an outfit which recently won the prestigious Pan Am games and also beat Canada in a warm-up game prior to the Worlds. We will obviously have to focus on our hitting, but we face another tough game on Sunday against current World Champions Australia."
Other results
Other scores from today's games were:
Pool A
Australia 10, Indonesia 0
Samoa 3, USA 2
Czech Republic 8, South Africa 1
Venezuela 1, GB 0
Pool B
New Zealand 4, Colombia 0
Canada 10, Philippines 0
Mexico 11, Netherlands 4
Argentina 3, Japan 1
Standings
The standings after the first two days of play (the top four teams in each pool will make the playoffs) look like this:
Pool A
Australia (2-0)
Samoa (2-0)
Venezuela (2-0)
Czech Republic (2-0)
Great Britain (0-2)
USA (0-2)
Indonesia (0-2)
South Africa (0-2)
Pool B
New Zealand (2-0)
Canada (2-0)
Argentina (1-1)
Japan (1-1)
Mexico (1-1)
Colombia (1-1)
Netherlands (0-2)
Philippines (0-2)