Great Britain’s 2009 Baseball World Cup ended in slightly disappointing circumstances yesterday.  The team was unable to get a win in the second round, finishing bottom of Pool F with an 0-7 record.  There was no shame in their performances.  Success for Team GB heading into the tournament was to qualify for the second round and they achieved that aim. 

The sense of disappointment is present because the team genuinely had chances to earn at least one victory in the second stage and they just came up short each time.  All British fans will feel the disappointment, not for themselves but for the players and coaches who deserved at least one win to celebrate for the way they performed. 

The game against Spain on Saturday epitomized this.  The final scoreline of 10-3 to Spain makes it look like Great Britain were never in the game.  In fact, they fought back brilliantly from 3-1 down to level the contest at 3-3 in the seventh inning.  Spain added on two runs in the eighth and five runs in the ninth to earn their victory, but the final score really doesn’t do justice to Britain’s level of play. 

With that game lost, Great Britain knew that a win-less second round was on the cards unless they could pull off a shock victory yesterday over Venezuela in Amsterdam.  Once again, they kept the game close for the majority of the contest until Venezuela put together a four-run seventh inning to send them on their way to a 6-1 win. 

A full game report for GB-Spain is available on the Great Britain Baseball team website and I’m sure one for the Venezuela game will be added in due course.  I’ll publish a review of Britain’s tournament later this week.

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