WBSC BBIC Recap Cuba and Italy produce opening day thriller
Heavy rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the eight teams assembled for Day One of the WBSC Blind Baseball International Cup at Farnham Park in England today.
Cuba and European champions provided an end of the day thriller which went into extra inning and ended in a 6-6 tie.
Cuba took an early 1-0 but Italy responded with a three run third inning and looked to be heading to their second victory of the day before two runs in the top of the fifth pulled Cuba level at 4-4.
Both teams put two runs on the board in the sixth but with runners on second and third Italy could not push the winning run across.
Italy were the first team with a victory overcoming China 4-0 with an outstanding batting display.
Giorgio Napoli was in great for with four hits, an RBI and two runs while Guiseppe Tocco, Driss Sahli and Ambra Trefolello had six hits and three RBI between them.
The USA grabbed a 1-0 win over Hungary in a rain interrupted game courtesy of an RBI by Jeremy Morak while China got over the disappointment of their first game loss with a surprise 3-0 win over the Netherlands.
“This was the first time the Chinese blind baseball team has stepped onto the international arena and players were filled with excitement and nervousness,” said Yang Shen, the Chinese Coach. “Although we lost their first game, the players were visibly more relaxed in the afternoon game and performed their skills to the best of their abilities to beat the Netherlands.”
Pakistan were too strong for USA as their batters showed what a threat they will be in a 8-3 victory.
Sarwar Ghulam was the star for Pakistan with three hits and five RBI. He was joined in the run fest by Qadeer Ashgar, Mahmood Zahid and Sheraz Chohan who all had multi hit games.
Hosts Great Britain got off to a 4-0 winning start against Hungary with the top of the order in good form.
Ray Clements & Nomad Iqbal both had multi-hit games as the home team proved too strong for the Hungarians.
“The tournament is a huge opportunity to raise the profile of blind baseball nationally and internationally and is a major step on the road to possible inclusion in the Paralympics,” said Ian Marchment, GB’s Director of Operations. 2
The final game of the day on Field One saw Pakistan beat GB 3-0 with Asghar maintaining his form with three crucial hits.
Bad light suspended the final game of the day with Cuba leading 8-1.
The top of the Cuban lineup was in devastating from the start with Maikel Cedano leading the way with three hits and two runs driven.
The game will be resumed at 8.30am and all games are being streamed on the WBSC YouTube Channel
An explanation of blind baseball and its rules can be found here https://bit.ly/4elMFfk
All photographs courtesy of RockerDavies Media and WBSC
