By Ian Tomlin
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Vancouver, Canada: 3 July -- GB Men’s Team Head Coach Kevin Stockford chose the Vancouver Softball Challenge as a warm-up event before the WBSC Men’s World Championship, knowing that that no British team has ever won a game at this premier event.
But at least it will have exposed the new players in the GB Team to some top-class opponents before the World Championship begins on 7 July in the frontier town of Whitehorse, in Canada’s Yukon Territory. The tournament will finish 10 days later, on 16 July.
Serious competition
The Vancouver Challenge is one of Canada's most sought-after titles, with a $15,000 prize going to the winners, and as such it attracts top players from Canada and America as well as an array of national teams.
The competition was split into two groups, with GB facing New Zealand, the Czech Republic, and two local sides -- the South Hill Giants and Fleetwood Marlins. Group Two contained the US, Canada and three local teams.
The competition was held in Vancouver's South Memorial Park, where the teams were blessed with four days of sunshine and temperatures of up to 26 degrees.
Game One
GB's opening game on Saturday 30 June was against the host team, the South Hill Giants, and it gave a good indication of the standard that would be faced throughout the competition. The Giants’ pitcher quickly got to work, dispatching GB's first three hitters, and he continued to control the GB attack with only two British runners reaching base over the first five innings.
Defensively, the team struggled to contain the Giants’ offense in an error-ridden game, and the Giants pulled away to win 7-0 in five innings.
Game Two
In Game Two, GB faced perennial men’s fastpitch powerhouse New Zealand, who finished runner-up to Canada in the 2015 World Championship. Kevin Stockford pitched a great game for GB, giving up just one walk and two hits.
But once again errors and an inability to put the ball in play cost the team dearly. Six errors led to six unearned runs for the Black Sox, and the GB offense was again unable to put runners on base. The game finished 8-0 to New Zealand and left the GB squad with a bit of a mountain to climb on Day Two.
Game Three
On Sunday morning, the team faced the local side Fleetwood Marlins, hoping to give themselves a lift with a win. However, the Marlins had other ideas and turned out to be GB's toughest test.
In the top of the first inning, a great hit towards the fence by Regan O’Neill was athletically caught by the Marlins’ centre fielder. Luke Peters then managed to get on base with a sharp hit to centre field, but the following batters were unable to bring him around.
Fleetwood's offense was probably the most aggressive the GB squad had faced and the Marlins put up four runs in the bottom of the first inning on two hits and two GB errors.
James Darby singled for GB to open the top of the second inning, but the next three batters struck out, and the only further British hits in the game were singles by Josh Peat and Morgan Ottridge.
Meanwhile, Fleetwood continued to put the ball in play and the final score was Fleetwood Marlins 10, GB 0.
Game Four
In the final game, GB had only their pride to play for, as the previous results had put them out of the competition. They faced a very competitive Czech side in what was to be a heated game between the two European rivals.
In the opening inning, Regan O’Neill reached base for GB, but was stranded there as two force outs at second and a strikeout closed out the inning,
The Czechs clearly had the intention of getting on top early, but GB pitcher Brendan Donnegan kept them in check throughout the game. However, a single and stolen base in the bottom of the first inning put a Czech runner in scoring position and a mix-up in the GB defense on a fly ball over the infield allowed the Czechs to score.
After that, some great fielding by Regan O’Neill, Neil Davies and Matt Tomlin in the infield, supported by Josh Peat and Kelvin Harrison in the outfield, kept the Czechs from scoring any further runs, and Brendan Donnegan contributed four strikeouts.
Once again, however, the GB squad struggled at bat, and the Czech starter was able to strike out 12 GB batters.
In the top of the sixth inning, however, after the first two GB batters had struck out, an opportunity presented itself.
A base hit by Regan O’Neill, followed by a successful steal, a walk to Josh Peat and a passed ball, put GB runners on second and third with the possibility of a two-out rally.
The next batter, Luke Peters, hit a line drive to the gap in right centre field that looked like it would score both runners and put GB ahead, but the Czech right fielder made a diving catch to end the inning.
The game ended at 1-0 to the Czechs and left GB thinking what might have been. But a positive from the game was the GB defense, which at last appeared to be growing in confidence and looked a very competent unit.
The squad will now move on to Whitehorse, with perhaps a degree of comfort that the defense is coming together.
The team
The players that will represent the GB Men’s Team at the World Championship in Whitehorse are:
Amit Aswani
James Darby
Neil Davies
Brendan Donnegan
Ieuan Gale
Kelvin Harrison
Reagan O'Neill
Morgan Ottridge
Josh Peat
Luke Peters
Tom Priscott
Kevin Stockford
Matt Tomlin