JOSEPH ODOEKWU
Tunisia beat defending champions Ghana 2-1 in the final of the Western Regional Baseball5 championship which was played at the NIS Sports Complex Gymnasium ON Sunday to become champions of the regions.
Both sides had met before in the group stage where Tunisia won two sets, but it was a different game in this final as the crowd witnessed a thrilling and tension filled final in the game before the North Africans who covered a distance of 4,531km to arrive Nigeria established their superiority in the game.
The first set of the game which started by 4:28pm WAT and ended 4:52pm WAT allowed the North Africans to win the first game, they had 9 runs from the game while Ghana had 5 runs.
The victory in the first set gave Tunisia inspiration and with high hopes, but things turned around in the second set which started at 5:01pm WAT, as Ghana rose from their first set defeat to record a victory against Tunisia after making 4 runs and leaving Tunisia with just 2 runs.
With the result tied at 1-1 after two sets, the stage was set for a third and final set which started at 5:32pm WAT where we saw more of the tactical display of the game to give the game the real status of a befitting final.
A heated scene which stopped play for about 7 minutes and led to confrontation between the two managers occurred at 5:54pm WAT in the third set, when the umpire awarded 5 runs to the Tunisia side and the Ghanaian manager protested about it.
The 5 runs were reduced to 4 runs to level up with Ghana’s 4 runs, but controversy began when the Tunisia manager rose to challenge the reduction and that led to a stop in play for about 7 minutes but play continued.
It did not take long after play continued before another scene happened when play was disrupted by 6:09pm WAT, the umpire had ruled out a Tunisian player and tempers rose again as the Tunisia manager Sofine stepped into the pitch to protest the decision.
Normalcy was restored again and play continued, and Tunisia maintained high level of tactical discipline with their 9 runs lead as against Ghana’s 5 runs before the third set ended at 6:10pm WAT and they became champions of the Western region.
Irrespective of the outcome of the result, both Tunisia and Ghana have qualified from the Western region, and they will now join Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe who have already qualified for the continental championship to pick Africa’s representative in the World Cup.
In an earlier game for the third-place play-off, Nigeria defeated Benin Republic for the second time in the championship 2-0 after two sets to win the third position.
The first set which started at exactly 2:30pm and ended at 3:03pm WAT gave Nigeria an opportunity to make 5 runs against the 3 runs recorded by Benin Republic, giving Nigeria an opportunity to rise again after losing to Tunisia earlier today to beat Benin Republic for the second time.
In the second set which started by 3:15pm WAT and ended 3:30 pm WAT, Nigeria increased their runs to 13 against the 7 runs made by Benin Republic to complete two victories and ensured there was no need for a third set.
AWARDS
- Best behave team- Benin Republic
- MVP Award for Male- Nehemiah Arhinful of Ghana
- MVP Award for Female- Ilek Chiek of Tunisia
