Tough loss for Great Britain against Spain

Spain 10, Great Britain 3
Rotterdam, Netherlands, September 19

A close game was broken open in the top of the ninth inning when Spain added five runs to give it a lop-sided win over Great Britain in the countries’ penultimate game of the second round at the Baseball World Cup. As in the game between GB and South Korea on Monday (Sept 14) the final score didn’t reflect how close the two sides were for much of the game.

Britain had come from behind to tie the game 3-3 in the seventh but a solo home run from Paco Figueroa in the eighth returned the lead to the Spanish and proved the catalyst for a fiesta finale. The defeat – Britain’s sixth in a row in the second round – will be hard to take in the GB camp as yet another competitive performance ultimately reaped no reward. GB had looked to this game as its best chance of recording a win before it concludes it World Cup experience against the Venezuelans on Sunday.

Playing the ace card

To that end, Head Coach Stephan Rapaglia had lined up one of his best pitchers to make the start – Tom Boleska, who plays with Single-A Lynchburg Hillcats in US minor league system. However, use of this talent came with a condition – a limit set by the club on how many pitches Boleska could throw in a World Cup start. That meant that Boleska would need to make efficient use of every pitch he threw before he had to be lifted from the game and would look to avoid long innings so that he could make his time on the mound stretch deep into the game.

The strategy didn’t get off to a brilliant start when Boleska loaded the bases in the first inning. Dewis Navarro hit a sacrifice fly to give Spain a 1-0 lead. This was added to in the third when Daniel Figueroa tripled to centrefield and then came home on a passed ball.

Great Britain made a quick reply in the bottom of the third inning when Alex Malihoudis came home from third on Sam Whitehead’s infield hit which just stayed fair down the third base line. GB’s offensive chances took a blow when catcher Chris Berset had to leave the game in the fourth due to injury. Berset has been one of the beacons of light in a lineup which has struggling to score runs. He hit a two-run homer in Britain’s crucial victory over Croatia which helped it qualify for the second round, and went 3-for-4 against the Netherlands on Friday (Sept 18). Sam Wiley took over behind the plate in today’s game.

Boleska left the game after five innings pitched with the score 2-1, having settled down after the first inning to limit the handy-looking Spanish batters to five hits, the two runs, and striking out three. Stephen Spragg took over on the hill and put in a typically solid spell of relief, going three innings.

Familiar story

What followed was fairly typical of the path the most recent GB games have gone in this round. Some great pitching and defensive plays kept the score close and put Britain’s batters in a position to rally, but one strong offensive inning wasn’t enough to give them a lead they could work with.

In the sixth inning Tim Collins made a diving stop at third base and a fine throw from his knees to make the out at first. In the same inning great awareness and an accurate throw from rightfielder Bradley Marcelino prevented William Domero scoring from third. Finally, Spragg got of a bases-loaded jam by striking out Emmanuel Febles to end the inning with no more runs conceded. Later, in the eighth, Malihoudis made an amazing diving catch in centrefield to rob Daniel Figueroa of a hit.

It seemed like the game was turning Britain’s way in the bottom of the seventh when Aeden McQueary singled in a run and Evan Romanchuk brought in the tying run with a groundout to the right side. However, Paco Figueroa’s solo home run promptly restored the Spanish lead in the eighth.

In the top of the ninth, with the score 5-3, Craig Pycock replaced Spragg on the mound but issued two walks and a single to load the bases before walking in a run. Singles in quick succession from Febles, Paco Figueroa and Navarro drove in further runs to put the game beyond GB.

Great Britain’s last game in the 2009 Baseball World Cup is against Venezuela, one of four teams fighting for the last qualification spot in Group F. It is currently scheduled for 13:00 CET (12:00 BST) in Haarlem on Sunday (Sept 20) but re-scheduling has been taking place over the last 24 hours so check out the official Baseball World Cup site for clarification.

Box score and play-by-play

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