Softball: Black Sox down but not out

By JULIE ASH

The Black Sox' hopes of securing their third consecutive world title suffered a setback last night when they were beaten 5-4 by Canada.

New Zealand's powerful batting line-up failed to deliver at the bottom of the seventh, handing the Canadians their narrow victory.

The loss means New Zealand now finish second in their pool behind Canada and face the highly-rated Americans tonight in their first playoff match.

"When we play Canada they are big games," Black Sox coach Don Tricker said. "Clearly, we got off to a bit of a slow start. We managed to fight our way back into the game, but we didn't quite close it out, so from that aspect it is a little disappointing.

"But as I have said all week, the pool play is about getting yourself in the race and we have got ourselves there, so for us the tournament starts again against the Americans."

Tricker stood behind his decision to use Karl Gollan, in his first year with the Black Sox, as his pitcher for the entire match.

Gollan had a reasonable game. He faced 28 batters, had four strikeouts, but gave away six hits, including two home runs.

"We have talked all along how we want our pitchers to get more time in the middle. We saw no reason to pull Karl - he had a fantastic game."

Following the conclusion of pool play yesterday, Canada finished top of pool A, ahead of New Zealand, Australia and Samoa.

New Zealand and Canada were tied on points, after Canada's loss to Samoa, but because the Canadians beat New Zealand, they secured top spot.

The United States charged through pool B unbeaten ahead of Japan, the Czech Republic and Argentina.

The top two in each pool (Canada, New Zealand, US and Japan) each receive two lives going into the playoffs. The others have just one.

A loss against the United States today would be a huge blow to the New Zealanders.

But Tricker said he felt good about the Americans. "I feel pretty confident in terms of who it is we are going to play from now."

After a scoreless first inning, the Canadians made it on to the scoreboard in the second when Sean O'Brien hit Dean Holoien home.

Canada extended their lead in the third when Bob Court unleashed a hit over the fence.

After three scoreless innings, Thomas Makea got New Zealand on the board at the bottom of the fourth with a hit to right field which got home veteran Mark Sorenson.

The New Zealanders could have scored earlier, but a controversial call led to captain Jarrad Martin being called out after a collision with the catcher as he was crossing the home base.

The hosts extended their lead in the bottom of the fifth to 4-2 as they capitalised on two Canadian fielding errors.

With a two-run lead the Black Sox kept the Canadians scoreless at the top of the sixth and appeared to be on track for their seventh consecutive victory.

But the Canadians fought to the end and a Rob Gray hit out of the park secured his side a 5-4 lead.

Going into the bottom of the seventh, the New Zealanders had no answer for Canada's top pitcher, Darren Zack, who struck out Patrick Shannon and Nathan Nukunuku, while Brad Rona was caught out.

Canada face Japan today.

Earlier, Samoa beat the Philippines 6-0. They will now face the Czech Republic.

In the other top-eight playoff, Australia take on Argentina.

Tournament draw and results

Tournament statistics

Squad lists