The Clan Softball team pose with their gold medals and the World Cup trophy. (Photo by Jeff Fay/Hollowtree Images)

WORLD CUP WILL NOW RESIDE IN SCOTLAND
2005-10-10

PLANT CITY, FL (USA) -- After suffering their first defeat of the tournament, which forced a second game as part of double-elimination play, the Clan Softball team from Scotland won the International Softball Federation’s (ISF) II Slow Pitch World Cup on Monday. The winners posted a 9-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Fishery (Lakeland, FL) to finish with an overall won-lost record of 8-1.

The tournament began on Saturday and featured eleven teams representing six countries. The event’s previous occurrence was in 2002 when a Great Britain team won the first Slow Pitch World Cup. That and this year’s competition took place in Plant City Stadium and the Randy L. Larson Softball Fourplex on the grounds of the ISF’s world headquarters complex.

This evening’s gold medal game saw the Tampa Bay team open a 1-0 lead before Clan Softball tallied five runs over the first two innings on their way to the title.

Tampa Bay had forced the double-elimination game by handing the Scots their first loss of the event, 12-5. After opening up a 12-0 lead off of runs in each of the first five innings, the Fishery team saw the Clan score in the bottom of the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings, which wouldn't be enough in going down to their first defeat after winning all four of their pool play games and then their first three in bracket play.

Tampa Bay had earned the opportunity to face Clan Softball for the World Cup by winning 4-2 over A.F. Masonry (Plant City, FL), who took home the bronze medals, as a result.

A.F. Masonry had lost to Clan Softball, 11-5, in an 11:00 game this morning, which sent them on to the bronze medal game against Tampa Bay Fishery, who had advanced by eliminating Great Britain1, 7-5, in a decision that ensured the event’s second edition would have a new World Cup champion.

The 11-5 Clan win over A.F. Masonry got off to a bad start for the hometown hitters, with the team from Scotland racking up seven runs in the top of the first inning, and building their lead to 9-0 before A.F. Masonry finally scored three times in the bottom of the fourth.

For Tampa Bay Fishery, their 7-5 win over Great Britain1 was an outcome similar to the two teams’ meeting in round robin play when the Florida team won a close game that featured a lot of offense (13-12). This time around it was a big fifth inning that spelled the eventual ouster of the team from overseas. Tampa Bay trailed 4-1 after four innings, but scored six times in the top of the fifth to send themselves on their way to the rematch with the A.F. Masonry team in the bronze medal game after having lost to them this morning, 12-9.

Things weren’t necessarily easy for the Clan team today in their road to the gold medal game. And not just because of their loss to Tampa Bay Fishery in the first game of the double-elimination. In their first game of the day, the Scots at one point found themselves trailing Great Britain1, 13-1, but not only rallied to tie the game in the sixth inning, but won it with a two-out, walk-off home run by Jon Weaver in the bottom of the seventh. Great Britain1 had gotten all their runs in the first (five runs) and third (eight) innings.

The morning had two other one-run games as well, with the Wild Rovers (Ireland) getting past Great Britain2, 9-8, and the Cayman Islands edging Nassau Four (Bahamas), 12-11. The Wild Rovers got knocked out in their next game though, a 21-11 loss to Tampa Bay Fishery, and the Cayman Islands suffered a similar fate, falling 9-6 to Great Britain1.