By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Shamoy Christopher, left, and Kennard Dawson
Baseball players Kennard Dawson and Shamoy Christopher, helped Great Britain to a sixth placed finish in the WSBC European Sr. Baseball Championships, after a 2-0 loss to Germany on Friday. Hosts Netherlands fended off Italy, 6-5 for the 25th continental title.
Dawson, who had one of the two Great Britain’s hits during a 2-0 loss to Germany while Christopher did not play in that game, said the tournament went well but they didn’t have the results that they wanted as a team, after finishing second to Spain in 2023.
Great Britain opened with a 9-3 loss to the Netherlands. He said that they were in the game until the sixth inning “then kinda imploded defensively” and had no answer after the Netherlands started scoring runs to break a 3-3 tie.
“It was still a good experience for us as a younger group this time around,” Dawson said. “It was good seeing old faces but we have a new developing cast, it was good to get that experience to put together a team for the first time. I’m looking forward to seeing how the team develops—whether that’s with me being involved or not—but we’ll see what the future holds.”
They bounced back to beat Israel, 16-1. Dawson and Christopher were both 0-for-3, with Christopher getting on base with a walk. Christopher did not play in Great Britain’s 9-4 victory over France. Dawson, who was inserted in the game as a DH/pinch runner, scored a run. Great Britain then lost to Spain, 7-0, in the quarter final, a rematch of the 2023 final. Christopher doubled in four at bats and Dawson, inserted in Right Field in the second inning, walked and scored twice in the 3-2 victory over Croatia.
“Those back-to-back wins were needed to build confidence and that propelled us towards the quarter finals. In the quarter finals we faced Spain and lost. We came out flat and I think that’s where our inexperience, with all the youth that we had, came in and many had not played in a big game like that before and we didn’t have an answer offensively for anything.”
The 3-2 victory over Croatia, he said, was good to help Great Britain in the world rankings. Against Germany, they again fell flat. “Our pitching did well, but when we needed to score, we just could find a way to push those runs across offensively,” he said.
Dawson noted that neither he or Christopher had been playing much baseball recently for various reasons, but the tournament was their first being back in full games. It wasn’t until later in the tournament that they started to hit.
“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to be fully prepared for the tournament or be at game speed coming into the tournament and that’s something we have to improve on,” he noted. “It would help if we had those facilities available in the BVI. If we have to come home for whatever reason, or have to take time off from the sport, we still have available facilities to stay in shape and to stay game ready,” he said. “That’s how things are right now, but hopefully, we can change it in the foreseeable future.”
