by RENALDO DORSETT
Team Great Britain’s valiant effort toward World Baseball Classic 2017 qualification came to an end in the tournament finale.
The team lost to Israel for the second time in the qualifier, this time a 9-1 loss in the championship game last night at MCU Park in Brooklyn, New York.
Albert Cartwright led Great Britain with a 1-3 night at the plate and the lone run scored. Chavez Young went one 1-3 with one RBI, Reshard Munroe was 1-1, and Todd Isaacs was 1-4.
After four scoreless innings, Israel erupted for four runs in in the fifth inning on a pair of two run home runs from Blake Gailen and Ryan Lavarnway. They added another run with a Zach Borenstein triple in the sixth and a Cody Decker solo home run in the seventh.
After a Cartwright double, Young plated him on a single in the next at bat.
Israel ended the game with three runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Brazil, Great Britain, Israel and Pakistan competed over the course of the four-day contest to decide the 16th and final entry in the 2017 WBC.
With the win, Israel will travel to Seoul, South Korea, next March and compete against host Korea, The Netherlands and Chinese Taipei in Pool B of the WBC 2017.
Veteran Bahamian players Antoan Richardson (Southern Maryland, Atlantic League) and Cartwright (Ottawa, Can-Am League) competed for Great Britain for the second time at the WBC qualifier.
This year’s team also included fellow Bahamians Ali Knowles (Garden City, Pescos League), Young (Toronto Blue Jays, MLB), Jasrado Chisholm (Arizona Diamondbacks, MLB), Kyle Simmons (Pittsburgh Pirates, MLB), Isaacs (Cleveland Indians, MLB), Munroe (Cincinnati Reds, MLB), Byron Murray (San Francisco Giants, MLB) and Champ Stuart (New York Mets, MLB).
Great Britain opened the tournament with a 5-2 loss to Israel with seven of the ten Bahamians on the roster in the starting lineup for Great Britain.
Isaacs went 2-3 with two RBI while Stuart went 3-4 and scored two runs. Isaacs hit an RBI line drive single to right field to plate Champ Stuart. It gave his team an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Young was 1-3 and Chisholm went 1-4.
The pair would score for Great Britain again in the top of the 7th when Isaacs hit a sac fly to right field to score Stuart and give their team a 2-1 lead.
Israel would respond with four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take control for good.
In game two, Great Britain used a six-run fifth inning to secure a 14-0 win over Pakistan and stay alive in the qualifying tournament.
It was the best offensive game of the tournament for Great Britain who recorded 13 hits.
Chisholm and Cartwright combined for five hits, scored four times and drove in three runs to pace the Great Britain offense.
Cartwright, hit a two-run triple that broke the game open in the fifth and Great Britain scored in every inning except the first.
In the semifinal, Great Britain defeated Brazil, 4-3, in a thriller.
Great Britain catcher Chris Berset throwing out Brazil’s Juan Carlos Muniz, attempting to steal third base.
Great Britain scored three runs in the bottom of the third inning, Isaacs was hit by a pitch to score Great Britain’s first run of the game. They went on to score two more runs to take a 3-2 lead and final score in the bottom of the seventh on Simmons’ RBI single.
The first World Baseball Classic was held in 2006, and the second took place three years later. The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and created by Major League Baseball (MLB), the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world.
It is the main tournament sanctioned by the IBAF, which names its winner the “World Champion.” It previously coexisted with Olympic Baseball (until 2008) and the Baseball World Cup (until 2011) as IBAF-sanctioned tournaments, but the other two have been discontinued.
