It was always going to be tough for Great Britain’s U18 squad to face unbeaten hosts Italy under the lights in Trieste, but the Brits battled hard to take an early lead behind Calvin Musil before ultimately running out of gas and losing in six innings by a score of 16-6.
Musil was given a great start by an RBI double to the left field wall by Luke Donaldson in the first, and an RBI double for catcher Euan Gulliver and sac fly by Christian McCarthy in the second. His infield also played their part as a 6-4-3 double play ended the bottom half of the second with the bases loaded.
Musil stranded a runner at third in the third inning as he mixed in his breaking pitches to induce a number of soft fly balls. But his day was done after three plus innings with a runner on first.
Ollie Galvin took the mound and quickly got another double play but Italy scored their first run as Sam White just failed to hang on to a Superman catch in left field. A second Italian run scored on a triple down the right field line but that was it as third baseman Luke Donaldson snagged a grounder on the back hand and made a great throw to just beat Marinangeli at first.
Italy rolled the dice with an intentional walk to Donaldson in the fifth, but this gamble did not have the same outcome as the one the day before by GB Head Coach Matt Moran. Sam White punched the ball to centre field to score Griff Franklin before Ben Sclafani hit the first pitch he saw in the at bat through the six hole to bring in Donaldson.
Italy scored four funs in the bottom of the fifth as Harry Craig, Dylan Nelson and George Evans all pitched and the hosts took the lead.
It was a momentum change, but GB were not done yet as Euan Gulliver walked, stole second, made it to third on a wild pitch and then surprised the whole Italian team by swiping home and bring the scores level again.
Unfortunately, that was where the British fortunes ended as the Italians scored ten in the bottom half of the inning to end the game. Tamburini plated three with a triple to the left centre fence and an all or nothing dive by centre fielder Akshay Chopra failed to make a catch and three more crossed. Chopra made a great over the shoulder catch for the second out but a walk off hit to left field ended the game in the Italians’ favour.
GB face France in their final pool game with a place in the semi finals at stake for the winner.
Photo courtesy of WBSC