The Black Sox have rebounded from last night’s heartbreak at the Softball World Cup to record a crucial and dominant win over the Philippines.
After last night’s extra innings defeat to Argentina, tonight’s contest against the Asia minnows became a crucial fixture for the hosts in their World Cup campaign with a win effectively setting up a knockout match in their final pool game tomorrow against Cuba.
Despite, or perhaps due to, the gravity of the game, coach Mark Sorenson opted to make drastic changes to his starting lineup from the ones he’s implemented so far in the tournament, giving starts to infielders Joel Evans and Jerome Raemaki as well as catcher Cameron Watts while also handing the ball to Pita Rona on the mound.
The Rosedale Park crowd were given a nervous start to the game though as the Philippines managed to score a run in the top of the first innings off another shaky start to the New Zealand pitching with Rona walking the second batter of the game.
However those nerves were quickly eased by the Kiwi sticks as the Black Sox responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the innings courtesy of a three-RBI homerun to Reilly Makea.
The Black Sox would pile on four more runs in the third innings as the Philippines worked their way through their pitching stocks looking for an answer to the Makea-led New Zealand offence but could find little reprieve.
On defence, the Black Sox started to show some flair of yesteryear with Rona’s combination of rise balls and changeups keeping the Philippines batters off balance. Any balls that did get hit were met by a clean Kiwi field, exemplified by diving catches from Thomas Enoka in the outfield and Raemaki at first base.
The Black Sox had a chance in the bottom of the fourth innings to push the lead to a crucial seven-run gap when pinch hitter Tane Mumu drove the ball down the left field line for a double before swiping third on an error but the Kiwis couldn’t bring him home and went to the fifth leading 7-1.
After another quick innings from Rona on the mound, the Black Sox made good on their next chance to end the game early with Makea collecting his second hit of the evening in the form of a double before Enoka drove him in with a single to centrefield.
With the game in the fifth innings, the 8-1 scoreline was enough to invoke softball’s mercy rule, ending the game two innings early.
The result is huge for the Black Sox; it puts them at a 2-2 record in the tournament heading into their final pool game tomorrow against Cuba who are also 2-2 after their 8-4 loss to the USA earlier today.
With only three teams getting out of the group to head to the playoffs and both Argentina and USA ahead in the standings, it means tomorrow’s match between the Black Sox and Cuba will decide the third seed from Group A while the loser will finish fourth and out of the running for a world title.
The all-important match plays out at 7:30pm tomorrow night.
New Zealand 8 [Reilly Makea 2-3, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, BB, 3 R / Pita Rona 5.0 IP, 11 Ks, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, W]
Philippines 1 [Michael Pagkaliwagan 1-2, 2B, RBI / Juliuz Dela Cruz 2.0 IP, 1 K, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 ER, L]
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