22/02/2020 - 01/03/2020

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U-18 Men's Softball World Cup 2020 - Official Payoff

South Africa 11-7 United States: Weideman powers South Africa offence with home run and 5 RBI

South Africa 11-7 United States: Weideman powers South Africa offence with home run and 5 RBI
29/02/2020
South Africa's 10th place finish matches their 2018 result.

Kyle Weideman fired-up South Africa’s offence with his home run and five RBI to finish in 10th place at the U-18 Men’s Softball World Cup, following their 11-8 victory over the United States on Saturday at Colquhoun Park in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Weideman got support from his teammates Matthew Parkinson who contributed 3 RBI and 2 runs while reliever Russel Mphahlele’s stint in 4.1 innings helped his side with 5 strikeouts to earn the win. Chase Thomson was the loser in 1.2 innings pitched.

USA jumped ahead in the first with an RBI double by Blake Kerr to drive in Eli Rivas. William Ponce added a second run on a sacrifice fly by Klayton Kilpatrick. South Africa cut down the lead of USA 2-1 after Ethan Buckley’s RBI single plated Parkinson in the top of the second inning.

One inning later, South Africa snatched the lead as Parkinson triple to deep centre field allowed Nicholas De Ascencao and Adrian Roberts score to put the African champions in front. In the bottom of the third Kerr hit a game-tying RBI single to drive Parker Hopkins to the home plate.

In the fourth inning, USA swung the momentum to their side to lead 4-3 after Caden Luna reached the plate off a sacrifice fly by Hopkins.

But South Africa made a breakaway run in the fifth inning, taking advantage of the lack of control by reliever Chase Thomson, who gave up three consecutive walks and a bases-clearing triple by Weideman to mount a 9-4 edge.

In the top of the seventh, South Africa added two more runs on the board with Weideman’s two-run homer off Eurich. USA made an effort to catch up but only managed to log three runs that closed the game at 11-7 in favour of South Africa.

With this game, the Placement Round came to an end. Both teams finished in a triple tie with Singapore, with a 2-3 record. For the tie break rule, Singapore finished ninth place, South Africa 10th and USA in the 11th position, their worst finish in this age group.