One of the participating teams in the World Cup™ is Venezuela, shown above celebrating their Pan American Softball Championship title this past October in Mexico. (Photo by Codeson/ Rafael Soto’s Agency)

MEN’S FASTPITCH WORLD CUP PLAYING THIS WEEK
2007-06-19

The inaugural International Softball Federation (ISF) Men’s Fastpitch World Cup™ got underway yesterday morning. Eight teams from around the world traveled to the National Softball Center in Prague, Czech Republic, to compete for the title. The tournament will feature five televised games, with the championship concluding on Sunday, the 24th. The participants include the national team from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Japan, USA, and Venezuela, plus the following club teams: the Netherlands-DeMo EHS, Spain-Santa Isabel Zaragoza, Spain-Halcones Tenerife, and the Czech Republic-Prague Stars.

On opening day, the National teams dominated the first games of the tournament. Japan, who finished fifth in the ISF XI Men’s World Championship (2004 in New Zealand), overpowered Spain-Santa Isabel Zaragoza (ESP), with a 6-0 victory. Likewise, USA’s National team, who came in fourth place in the last Men’s World Championship, defeated DeMo EHS of the Netherlands, in a 9-2 run- rule win.

The afternoon games yielded victories for the Czech Republic and Denmark. The latter defeated the Prague Stars (CZE) in the first afternoon game, with a 7-3 win. The Prague Stars were unable to bounce back from the five runs scored by the National team in the bottom of the third inning.

In the final game of the day, the Czech Republic struck early against Halcones Tenerife (ESP), bringing in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning. The game then remained scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, when the Czech Republic rallied, bringing in five more runs to seal their 7-0 shutout victory.

Venezuela opened their schedule this morning by defeating the Netherlands-DeMo EHS, 3-1, in the first game of Day 2. In the game that followed, the USA National team added another win to their record by defeating Denmark, 9-4.

The remainder of the schedule includes 34 games between today and Sunday. For the full schedule as well as results and statistics, visit the official event website.