Day 1 at the 13th ISF Men’s Softball World Championship

Samoa v Great Britain

Samoa made a dream start to its second appearance at a world softball championship when they beat Great Britain 2–0 at Rosedale Park in the opening game of the 2013 tournament.

Samoa’s opening run and the tournament’s first was scored in the fourth with Joshua Niu, batting eighth in the order, scoring on a hit from Tony Niu. The side then doubled its advantage in the fifth when Aaron Knight came on as a runner and scored off a Gerard Long hit.

For the side’s captain, Michael Niu, it was a satisfying start to the tournament.

“The boys were looking to get off on the right foot,” Niu said.

“So it was good to get the first up win.”

Niu was not too surprised that it took four innings before his side got its opening run.

“I thought it was going to take a while because of the nerves, but once we got into the groove we got there.”

Having the opening game at 9.30 also meant an early start to the day for Niu and his team-mates with the players up and ready two hours before game time.

“A lot of the boys were up really early,” he said.

“We had been practising to get up that early.”

While Samoa managed just three hits in the game – Tony Niu, the first in the third, Gerard Long in the fourth and Bernard Hale in the sixth there was positives for the captain.

On the mound for Samoa, Thomas Enoka faced 25 batters and gave up just two hits and took eight strikeouts.

“No one really knew what to expect and we had been walking on egg shells as no one wanted to make mistakes,” he said.

Meanwhile, it was an opening defeat for Great Britain the side’s Kevin Stockford was happy with the performance of his rookie team.

“We just didn’t score the runs,” Stockford, who learnt the game in New Zealand and has strong ties with the sport in his native country, said.

“It was a confidence boost though for a lot of our guys they haven’t been to a world championship.”

Colombia v Philippines

Colombia outfielder Luis Mercado hit the first automatic home run at the 2013 TradeStaff World Softball Championship which is being played at Auckland’s Rosedale Park.

Colombia opened their 2013 campaign with a 4-2 win and Mercado’s hit came in the fourth inning and with pinch runner Federico Julid on second base it had Colombia ahead 2-0. That side added a third run in that inning with Cesar Jimenez scoring.

Colombia added a fourth run in the fifth with lead-off batter Roycer Camacho scoring.

Czech Republic v Indonesia

It was off to the beach for the members of the Czech Republic softball team after they beat Indonesia 10-3 in five innings at the 2013 TradeStaff World Softball Championships which are being played at Rosedale Park in Auckland.

“They are off to the beach now. Today they can, they got the pass to go,” batting coach Lawrence Allen said.

The beaches around Auckland have been a popular place for the Czech Republic side and on Tuesday the side was at Muriwai Beach, but had left before the shark tragedy.

“It didn’t scare them though. They were surprised, but it didn’t stop them and they went off to Piha the next day,” Allen said.

“They have been to the beach everyday.”

Allen’s side did look impressive during the game, which was the first at the tournament to have the run rule imposed on it.

He was particularly impressed with how his players did not panic when Indonesia came within two runs – instead the following innings they doubled their score.

“We did go missing for a couple of innings,” he said.

“I had the confidence in the boys though. We just wanted them to go out and hit some line drives.”

They did just that with those line drives coming off the bat of Tomas Klein, Karel Kadecka and Jiri Nezbeda in the fifth inning.

“I just wanted them to come back.”

However, Allen is also aware his side has work to do as the tournament if they are to be still in the frame come the business end of the competition.

“I was a bit disappointed we started to attack that first pitch, we didn’t need to.”

Among the standout players for the Czech Republic in that game were Nezbeda who picked up two hits from three at bats and scored two runs. He also batted in a third run.

Japan v Netherlands

Japan showed that they will be a force to reckon with at the Softball World Championships beating the Netherlands 7-0 at Rosedale Park.

In the same pool as the Black Sox and a contender for the play-offs Japan had their opponents on the back-foot from the opening inning when Jun Taniguchi slammed a three base hit and then scrambled home on a pass ball.

Although the Netherlands managed to re-group after that, things went against them in the fourth as Japan hammered them for five runs, including an automatic off the bat of Kenji Nakamura.

Venezuela v South Africa

Venezuela made a winning start to the world championships with the side beating South Africa 6-0.

For the South Americans, Herwins Querales got his team off to a dream start, hitting a home run in the third inning to open his side’s scoring account. Venezuela then added another two runs in the fourth with Edwin Linares and Rafael Flores making sure the scoreboard was ticking over. In the seventh inning, Keris Rinero, Jorge Lima and Iran Paez put the game well and truly beyond South Africa.

New Zealand v Mexico

Veteran Jarrad Martin hit a lead-off home run in a big second innings to give New Zealand the start they needed at the Tradestaff ISF World Softball Championships, dispatching Mexico 5-0 at Auckland’s Rosedale Park.

After Tyson Byrne scored in the first at-bat, Martin (40), in his fifth world tournament, cleared the leftfield fence to spark a three-run inning that gave the Black Sox a 4-0 lead. Daniel Milne and Tyron Bartorillo also crossed home plate, and Bartorillo completed the scoring in the fourth innings.

Leftie Heinie Shannon opened the pitching with eight strikeouts and four hits, and in his world championship debut, Nik Hayes pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings, also with eight strikeouts.

Coach Eddie Kohlhase was very pleased with the first-up victory, particularly holding the Central Americans scoreless.

“Any time you can do that at the world championships is an achievement,” he said. “Both Heinie and Nick were quite phenomenal – I think Nik was a bit of an unknown proposition for them, but we need to keep his feet on the ground and keep our feet on the ground.”

Kohlhase also praised his vets Martin and Thomas Makea, who subbed on in rightfield to make a spectacular back-pedalling catch and hit a stand-up double in the seventh inning.

After entering the tournament under an injury cloud, captain Rhys Casley also made a surprise appearance at second base in the third innings. Even Kohlhase had not planned on testing his skipper’s dodgy shoulder in the field so soon.

“Tyson suffered a concussion sliding into third base and we needed a bit of a re-shuffle,” said the coach. “It was good to see Rhys out there and he felt really good, so that’s another positive to come out of an unfortunate situation.”

The Black Sox had shown some patchy lead-up form to the tournament, but looked assured against tricky opponents.

“I think the expectation hit home to this team over the last month or so,” observed infielder Nathan Nukunuku, who joined the team for his fourth world event just this week to cover for Casley’s injury.

“When you haven’t been through that before, it can be a bit of a mind job, so this was a big step for them.”

NZ Black Sox 5 (Tyron Bartorillo 2, Tyson Byrne, Jarrad Martin, Daniel Milne) Mexico 0