Botswana out of World Softball Championships

Thato Kala | Friday August 22, 2014 12:46

After losing to the United States, the Aussies got back on track rolling over Botswana, who have only won one game.

Reports from Harlem says Botswana’s only hit of the game was by Bonolo Molefhe.

Botswana Softball Association (BSA) official, Renny Molete said the country’s poor performance has to do partly with the fact that only two nations play the game in Africa. This means Botswana and South Africa, the only active softball nations in the continent never play qualifiers for international tournaments.

“Africa must smell the coffee and wake up. We need to revive the sport and also play qualifiers. That is important in preparing our teams for such tournaments. But, overall, we feel the exposure the team got was important,” Molete said.

He said there were positives to draw from the campaign despite the string of losses.

“For one, we have never won a game in an international competition but the team beat Britain on the opening day of the tournament,” he told Mmegi Sport. Botswana made a good start by overcoming Britain 5-3, but fell 6-0 to Italy in the next game. The Italy game was played under heavy rains and had to be stopped at the third and sixth innings. It was completed after eight hours.

Botswana then lost 7-0 to USA before falling 11-1 to Dominican Republic. Yesterday was the last day of the round robin stage of the tournament.

Japan, Canada, USA and Australia have already secured a spot in the playoff while Britain, Botswana and Puerto Rico are out.

The other nine teams are competing for the remaining four spots.

Botswana play hosts, Netherlands in the last game today before leaving Harlem on Monday.

The team is expected back in the country on Wednesday.

Molete said Botswana was one of the few countries that qualified for the tournament via a wild card and believes this was a disadvantage. Other countries from continents where the sport is popular played qualifiers to book places in the tournament.