Cuba and Italy produce Blind Baseball International Cup opening day thriller that ends in deadlock

Heavy rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the eight teams assembled for Day One of the WBSC Blind Baseball International Cup at Farnham Park in England today.

Cuba and European champions Italy played a thrilling end-of-day thriller, which went into extra innings and ended in a 6-6 tie.

Cuba took an early 1-0 lead, but Italy responded with a three-run third inning and looked to be heading to their second victory of the day before two runs in the top of the fifth pulled Cuba level at 4-4.

Both teams scored two runs in the sixth, but with runners on second and third, Italy could not score the winning run.

Italy were the first team with a victory overcoming China 4-0 with an outstanding batting display.

Giorgio Napoli was in great form with four hits, an RBI and two runs, while Guiseppe Tocco, Driss Sahli and Ambra Trefolello had six hits and three RBI between them.

The United States grabbed a 1-0 win over Hungary in a rain-interrupted game courtesy of an RBI by Jeremy Morak, while China got over the disappointment of their first-game loss with a surprise 3-0 win over the Netherlands.

“This was the first time a Chinese blind baseball team had stepped onto the international arena, and our players were filled with excitement and nervousness,” said Yang Shen, the Chinese head coach.

"Although we lost our first game," he added, the players were visibly more relaxed in the afternoon game and performed their skills to the best of their abilities to beat the Netherlands."

Pakistan were too strong for the United States as their batters showed what a threat they would be in an 8-3 victory.

Sarwar Ghulam was Pakistan's star, with three hits and five RBI. He was joined in the run-fest by Qadeer Ashgar, Mahmood Zahid, and Sheraz Chohan, who all had multi-hit games.

Hosts Great Britain got off to a 4-0 winning start against Hungary with the top of the order in good form.

Ray Clements & Nomad Iqbal both had multi-hit games as the home team proved too strong for the Hungarians.

“The tournament is a huge opportunity to raise the profile of blind baseball nationally and internationally and is a major step on the road to possible inclusion in the Paralympics,” said Ian Marchment, GB’s Director of Operations.

In the final game of the day on Field One, Pakistan beat Great Britain 3-0. Asghar maintained his form with three crucial hits.

Bad light suspended the final game of the day with Cuba leading 8-1 against the Netherlands.

The top of the Cuban lineup was in devastating from the start with Maikel Cedano leading the way with three hits and two runs driven.

The game will be resumed tomorrow morning at 8:30 am (local time) tomorrow, Saturday September 28.

Pakistan leads group A with two wins, ahead of Great Britain and USA (1-1). Hungary has two losses.

In Group B Italy leads with one win and one tie, followed by China (1-1), Cuba (one tie) and the Netherlands (0-1).