Day 5

Stats

A trio of Black Sox players are beginning to make an impact on the statistics board at the 2013 Tradestaff men’s softball world championships which are being played at Auckland’s Rosedale Park.
Leading the home run count wit three is Brad Rona. Two of those blows came in his side’s game against Canada on Monday night, but were not enough for the Black Sox to win the game with Canada beating the home side 9-7 to be the only unbeaten team in section B. Rona and team mate Donny Hale are in a group of five players second on the runners batted in chase with five.
Byrne finished day four of the competition fourth on the batting stats with an average of .500. At the top of that list is Czech Republic’s Karel Kadecka who has an average of .750.
The leading pitcher at the tournament after four days is Australia’s Adam Folkard who has faced 41 batters and has a 0.00 earned run average.

Heinie Shannon battles through the pain...

When it comes to playing through pain Black Sox pitcher Heinie Shannon knows all about it, not the he is complaining. Shannon is desperate to have the ball and be the player in the middle come the business end of the 2013 Tradestaff world championship and if that means playing through a small tear so be it.

“It limited me. I was in some pain but at the end of the day it was my turn to pitch for the team,” he said.
“When playing for the Sox we don’t take a back step to nobody, even though I was sore everyone is sore there isn’t any excuses. You have to give everything you have got for the win.”

He came out of the game in the seventh inning, not that he wanted to be replaced by Nik Hayes. That was not before he had restricted the Argentina side to just four hits – two coming off the bats of the last two batters he faced in the game.

“I got through the games wanted to finish. It was unfortunate I got a couple of hits. Overall I was just on borrowed time.”

Asked just what the injury is, Shannon’s reply was simple: i wouldn’t know mate all i know is its sore, really sore
His performance did not go unnoticed by his coach Eddie Kohlhase either.

“You don't use the word heroic very often in softball, but I thought that was quite a heroic performance out there by Heinie,'' coach Eddie Kohlhase said. "Unbelievable really..."

Thomas Makea shines again.

Veteran Black Sox player Thomas Makea believes the 2013 Tradestaff world softball champion team will emerge from Section B of the tournament which is being played at Rosedale Park in Auckland. That call is bad news for the defending champions Australia and good news for Makea’s side are in section B and currently second to Canada in the race for the top four. The other two teams in the section are Argentina and Japan, who are expected to make up the top four.

“I think to be honest the winner will come out of this pool there has been tough games ,” Makea said.
“Four years ago we cruised through our pool play and didn’t get many tough teams. We are preparing for the next phase and getting some good games.”

Australia has cruised through their section play, scoring 37 runs and conceding just one. They are the tournament’s only unbeaten side going into day six of the competition. The Black Sox know what it is like to cruise through section play having done that to some extent at the 2009 tournament and then been given a wake-up call when they got to the play-offs and there is every chance on Friday the two sides will meet again.

“Be nice, I am looking forward to that one.”

Makea showed his worth in the game against Argentina, his over-the-fence blow in the fifth inning turning out to be the difference between the two sides.

Coach Eddie Kohlhase was also impressed.

“He just doesn’t go away,” Kohlhase said. “He’s just a warrior. He has prepared for a couple of years for this. His body is just holding together.”

Tape helps.

“It takes about half an hour to take it all off,” he said..

“I’m hanging in there and I will be all good.”


Australia 5 Venezuela 0
Defending champions Australia continued their impression run at the 2013 Tradestaff world championships with the side beating Venezuela 5-0.
The damage for the Australian side came in the fifth and six innings with Michael Tanner and Joel Southam opening their run account.
On the mound Adam Folkard continued his impressive performance at the tournament, taking 15 strikeouts and conceding just four hits – Franklin Gonzalez, Luiger Pinto and John Zambrano.

Columbia 5 Mexico 0
From the first inning Colombia showed they meant business with Jamir Iriate Gomez, Lewis Paul Lungo and Yerson Santana giving the side a dream start.  The side added a further two runs through Gary Pacheco and Lungo in the fifth.
While the batters did their job equally doing his on the mound was Romiro Martinz, who faced 26 batters, took 10 strikeouts and gave up just two hits.
 
Czech Republic 6 Samoa 2
The Czech Republic bounced back from a disappointing day four to end Samoa’s dreams of a top two finish when they came from two runs down to win the game 6-2.
For the European side, David Mertl, Vaclav Svoboda and Pavel Stockek were the key contributors the trio batted in a brace of runs each and Mertl also scored himself.
Pitching for the side Jaroslav Muller gave up just four hits. Samoa in contrast used two pitcher with Zane Siolo starting the game and faced 18 batters gave up seven hits and Joel Harris, who came in to the game in the fourth inning, faced 10 batters and gave up four hits.

United States 14 Indonesia 0
The USA continued their push to make the top four with a comfortable win over the winless Indonesia side in just four innings.
Most of the damage for the USA team came in the third inning when the side batted through its order and scored 10 runs including an over the fence blow from Adam Lalande.
Standout performers for the US team included josh Johnson and Dave Lohman who both batted in three runs.
 
Great Britain 2 South Africa 0
A timely blow from Ken Pregnell in the bottom of the fifth inning helped Great Britain collect their second win of the tournament.
Pregnell’s blow which cleared the right field fence also scored Morgan Ottridge.
While those two got the runs, James Darby did his job on the mound taking 13 strikeouts and conceding two hits.

Japan 4 Canada 1
A timely appearance by Kenji Nakamura set Japan up for a win over Canada and ending that sides perfect run at the tournament.
Nakamura was brought into the game in the sixth inning with his side ahead 2-1 and with the first swing of his bat the score was 4-1. Nakamura’s over-the-fence hit also scoring pinch-runner Kengo Kidani.
If Nakamura broke the hearts of the Canadian team, who had opened the scoring in the fifth inning through Kevin Schellenberg, Yohei Ono provided the blow that started it. His hit in that inning and with two runners on, tuned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 advantage.

Netherlands 8 Philippines 4
In the battle for the wooden spoon, the Netherlands look likely to have avoided that and largely thanks to lead-off batter Mike den Braven whose over-the-fence blow in the fourth inning contributed to two runs. The blow also breaking 4-4 deadlock.