GameTime Classics Episode 22: 2004 Men’s Softball World Championship Game between Canada and New Zealand
An historic chapter in the biggest, long-time rivalry between two of the men’s softball powerhouses.
Today’s edition of GameTime Classics will showcase an historic matchup between New Zealand and Canada, going for gold in the 2004 Men’s Softball World Championship final. The 11th edition of the global event was held at Smokefree Ballpark in Christchurch, New Zealand, with 15 participating countries.
New Zealand played host trying to complete a historic three-peat, after winning campaigns in Midland (USA) 1996 and East London (South Africa) 2000. While Canada was looking for their fourth title.
Both teams played in the Opening Round Group A, with a 5-4 victory for Canada. Darren Zack earned the win, while Bob Court and Rob Gray homered for Canada. However, in the first semi-final New Zealand outscored Canada 13-5 to advance to the final. Jimmy Wana was the winner for the hosts, while Thomas Makea, Patrick Shannon and Brad Rona (x2) went yard.
Some of the biggest names of the sport jumped onto the diamond on 8 February 2004, like Mark Sorenson, Jarrad Martin, Donny Hale, Thomas Makea, Ryan Wolfe and Gerard Muizelaar.
Earlier in the day, Canada had sealed their place in the final with a one-sided 7-0 win over Australia.
This game will be streamed for free at www.youtube.com/wbsc at 9 pm Eastern US Standard Time* on Wednesday, 15 April (3 am Central European Time*, 7 am New Zealand Standard Time Thursday) and Thursday at 9 am Eastern Standard Time* (3:00 pm Central European Time*, 7 pm Australia Time) at www.facebook.com/wbsc. *Observing daylight saving time.
The next delivery of GameTime Classics will showcase the game between Mexico and USA, for the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup 2017.