(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo courtesy of Softball Canada)
       Canada dethrones Bahamas as World Champion Slowpitch
Nederlands
 PLANT CITY, Florida (USA) -
Canada is the new World Champion Slowpitch Softball.
In the all-deciding Final of the sixth WBSC Co-Ed Slow Pitch World Cup in Florida on Sunday (November 19), Canada nipped defending champion Bahamas 23-22.
On the final day of the event, Canada had to play four games to dethrone the Bahamas, which had won the title in 2015 and 2016.
The first tournament took place in 2002, then the next one in 2005.
Since 2014, the Championship is held annually.
Besides Canada and the Bahamas, Great Britain and USA also qualified for the Medal Round.
Seven countries participated in the co-ed event, which features both male and female players.
Each team was allowed to have a maximum of 20 players, but must have no fewer than five being of one gender.
...World Champion Co-Ed Slowpitch Canada...
(© Photo courtesy of Softball Canada) |
In the preliminary round robin, Great Britain finished in first place, followed by Canada, the USA, the Bahamas, Curaçao, Bulgaria and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Curaçao closed the round robin in fifth place, winning two of its six games.
On Day 1 (Thursday, November 16), Curaçao played three games.
The team began with a 25-9 loss against the USA, then won 21-6 against the Turks and Caicos Islands, but then lost again 15-8 to Great Britain.
The next day, Curaçao won 18-16 against Bulgaria, then lost 25-14 to Canada and 16-2 to Bahamas.
In July in Sofia (Bulgaria), Great Britain was dethroned as European Champion.
Since 1998, the British squad had won all ten Championships held since then.
But this year, Germany upset Great Britain in the Final by winning 20-9 to win the title.
The USA opened the double-elimination Play-Offs with a big 26-5 win against the Turks and Caicos Islands, then Bahamas nipped Curaçao 14-13 and Canada outscored Bulgaria 24-10.
As round robin-winner, Great Britain avoided this first series of games, then met the USA in its first Play-Off game.
The American squad won 21-5 to become the first team to qualify for the Medal Round.
In the afternoon, Bahamas handed Canada its first loss by winning 19-13 to reach the top-four, then Curaçao was eliminated after an 18-9 loss to Bulgaria.
The next team to be eliminated was Turks and Caicos Islands after losing 30-6 to Canada.
The Play-Off round ended with Great Britain winning 14-8 against Bulgaria, which therefore became the third team to be eliminated for the Medal Round.
It also meant that Great Britain had qualified.
On the final day of the event (Sunday, November 19), Bahamas became the first finalist by winning 14-11 against the USA.
Hereafter, Great Britain was eliminated (finishing in fourth place) after losing 17-5 to Canada.
In the afternoon at Plant City Stadium, Canada won 16-12 against the USA in the Bronze Medal-game (backdoor) to become the second finalist.
In the Final, Canada met the Bahamas.
Canada opened with a 20-15 win, which was the first loss for the Bahamas.
In this game, Canada collected 20 basehits, including five homeruns.
As Canada already had lost a game in the double-elimination, with the win against the Bahamas, the team forced an additional game to decide the championship.
Canada won 23-22 to become the new World Champion.
In the decisive game, Canada rallied for eight runs in the first inning, but the Bahamas led 14-13 in the third at bat.
In the fifth, it was Canada that re-took the lead (21-20), but the Bahamas scored twice in the sixth to make it a 22-21 score in their favor.
Moments later, in the bottom of the sixth, Canada added two more runs to take the lead again.
This time, the Bahamas was unable to do something back, as three flyouts in the top of the seventh ended the game.
While this was the sixth World Cup, it was the third in a row in which only National Teams participated.
In the first three editions, clubteams also participated.
Slowpitch is being played by some 40 million athletes in more than 140 countries.
(November 22)
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