More miss than hits for Black Sox

Coach Mark Sorenson lamented the lack of hitting as the Black Sox were knocked out of the top-six playoffs and crashed to their worst-ever Softball World Cup result.

The seven-time champions can now only finish in seventh place at best after losing 1-0 to Cuba in a nine innings tiebreaker in their final Pool A game in Auckland on Wednesday night.

The winning run came into the bottom of the ninth when Cuba’s top hitter Yesander Rodriquez punched a single over the Kiwi infield to score Yasmani Alvarez. It is the second consecutive time the Black Sox have failed to make the World Cup podium after a fourth place in Prague in 2019, and it must now be evident to New Zealand softball fans that the flagship men’s team has fallen behind their rivals.

The powerbase is now the Americas with champions Argentina joined in the top six by Canada, the United States, Venezuela and Cuba. Australia is the only team outside that region with a shot at the gold medal. The Black Sox may not even be assured of seventh place.

Japan – who have beaten the New Zealanders more often than not in recent years – are also in the bottom-six.

This will be the first time the Black Sox have not won the title at a world championship in New Zealand after striking gold in 1976, 2004 and 2013.

Sorenson said pitcher Daniel Chapman ‘‘threw a hell of a game ... one of the best I have seen from a New Zealand pitcher’’ but the offence failed to fire.

The Black Sox took just three hits off Cuba’s equally effective 44-year-old pitcher Alain Roman, who had them tied up on drop balls most of the night.

‘‘In critical situations we never got a hit. We struck out I don’t know how many times. We got runners on base and you don’t get a lot of opportunities in big games like that,’’ Sorenson said.‘ ‘Unfortunately, we could not get that guy across the line.’’

The Black Sox were, by and large, too passive at the plate and it looked like too many were expecting someone else to spark up the game with a solo shot home run.