Botswana Humbles South Africa In Softball Friendly
Calistus Kolantsho | Monday December 3, 2018 13:53
In day one, the locals were beaten 17-9 but made a comeback on day two to win 6-5.
In the final match they overcame their opponents with a slim margin of 3-2.
The two countries were using the friendly tournament as preparations for the WBSC Africa qualifiers scheduled for Pretoria in January 8, 2019. Botswana men’s team coach, Pako Maforaga said they achieved their aims.
Regarding the match that they lost, he said they started off well leading the game but lost focus as the game progressed.
“I mostly used new players and I realised the relaxed thinking they had an insurmountable lead. When South Africa made their comeback, my players panicked allowing the visitors to score more runs,” he said. The leader of delegation, Kelebogile Seitei told Sport Monitor that they had 28 players in camp and the intention is to scale them down to 17 in preparation for Africa qualifiers.
She said South Africa is a tough side and pulling such a results against them is a big achievement. She said all players were given a chance to prove themselves. She said it is unfortunate that there is no time to play other friendlies and they just have to pick lessons from the weekend matches moving forward.
Meanwhile, the women’s team lost all their matches. Seitei said the women’s team is new and they had to wait for the players to finish their Form Five examinations. She said that meant little time to prepare for the friendly match.
“We went into the games with a higher number on the junior women side as we felt we had to give them a chance to prove themselves especially those who reside outside Gaborone as some only arrived in camp on Wednesday and Thursday respectively,” Seitei said.
Women results: Day 1: South Africa 11-0 Botswana, Day 2: South Africa 16-3 Botswana and Final game: South Africa 7-1 Botswana.