Britain runs the hosts close but still waiting for second-round victory

Netherlands 6, Great Britain 0
Rotterdam, Netherlands, September 18

GB took on the Dutch before a big Rotterdam crowd

The Great Britain baseball team put in yet another battling performance in the Baseball World Cup, this time against the Netherlands, historically the dominant country in European baseball and tonight featuring a high number of professional ball players in its squad. Despite another strong defensive display, GB was undone by three early runs which left it chasing the game. Britain’s hitters couldn’t make an impact against starting pitcher Tom Stuifbergen’s strong seven innings and the Netherlands added runs in the eighth inning to continue its 100% record in the second round in front of a large home crowd in Rotterdam.

GB, now 0-5 in Group F, will now focus on Saturday’s game against Spain as its best chance of recording a win in the second round. Though no-one takes the Spanish lightly – particularly after their 8-1 victory over Venezuela earlier in the round – the GB camp is confident that all its hard work and continuing improvements will see it catch a break soon.

“We’re due something falling in that will give us the edge in a game and reward the guys’ patience and hard work defensively” said GB General Manager, Alan Smith, after the Netherlands game.

“We’re living with teams that very few people would expect the GB team to be able to compete with, and we’re not being embarrassed,” added Head Coach, Stephan Rapaglia.

Impressive defense

A solo home run from Raily Legito and an RBI-triple from Hainley Statia helped the Netherlands to a 3-0 lead in the second inning. However, some well-turned defensive plays behind sturdy pitching from Aeden McQueary kept the reigning European Champions close for four more innings and meant that it was frequently the Union Jacks in the stands being waved in celebration at the end of an inning rather than flags of the orange variety.

A sharp throw by leftfielder Matt McGraw to Tim Collins at third base caught out a runner trying to make his way to third base in the third inning. Catcher Chris Berset then fired a pin-point throw to shortstop Brant Ust to catch a runner attempting to steal second, which ended the inning. In the fourth, McQueary induced three groundouts to retire the Netherlands’ batters in order and followed up with two strikeouts in the fifth to shut them down further. In the seventh, GB had a Dutch runner trapped in a run-down between first and second but a heads-up play by the infielders saw a throw over to the catcher to tag out the runner trying to sneak home, preventing the run and ending the inning.

At the plate, GB battled as ever – epitomised by Collins’ at-bat in the bottom of the second in which he fouled off pitches no less than nine times before earning a single off Stuifbergen. In the bottom of the seventh Sam Whitehead motored around the bases to beat out a triple for his first hit of the campaign. Berset continued an impressive tournament with a 3-for-4 performance and was only denied a 100% showing by an athletic leaping catch from second baseman Sharlon Schoop in the eighth inning. However, despite Britain’s eight hits it was a familiar tale of not being able to do the business with runners in scoring position.

This was punished when the Netherlands added runs in the seventh and eighth. In the eighth, reliever Paul Waterman intentionally walked home run hitter Legito to put runners on first and second but the next batter, Schoop, singled in a run followed by Danny Rombley doing the same to make it 6-0.

Great Britain’s penultimate game in the second round is versus Spain at 13:00 (12:00 BST) in Rotterdam on Saturday (Sept 19). It then finishesconcludes its second round campaign on Sunday against Venezuela.

Box score and play-by-play

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