Hirai Hustles and Malone Takes One for the Team as GB Women Make History -

After two and a half frustrating days watching torrential rain fall in Taiwan, Great Britain finally took the field in their first-ever Baseball World Cup game.

Maybe the delay had eliminated any nerves, but Pietro Sollecito’s team came out looking supremely confident.

In the first inning, Darier Malone, MVP from the European Championship, worked a full count walk to give GB their first-ever base runner. It would be a day of firsts.

Laura Hirai, the double-gold-medal winner, was given the honour of being Great Britain’s first woman to take to the mound, and promptly threw a clean inning.

As if to emphasise the difference in experience between the two teams, taking the ball for Venezuela was the veteran pitcher Frandelis García. This was her fifth appearance over three World Cups, and she was yet to allow an earned run.

That streak continued in the top of the second inning as she took out Claury Scatliffe, Dani Briggs, and Artie Herbert in order.

And then the tournament started proper for GB.

Without doubt, the wet conditions made routine plays anything but routine, and a frustrating error at second from Briggs gave Venezuela their first base runner.

The World’s fifth ranked team started exerting pressure on the World Cup debutants. Hirai was charged with a balk to move the runner into scoring position, and then saw Mariana Natera lift the ball over Sam Rahman’s head in right field to drive in the first run of the 2026 Women’s World Cup.

Venezuela were very loud on the base paths – trying to get into Hirai’s head – and a wild pitch, followed by catcher Herbert airmailing a throw over third, doubled Venezuela’s lead.

Yohelis Colina walked, attempted to swipe second, and moved onto third after another errant throw from the GB catcher.

A single up the middle plated Colina, pushing the scoreboard to 3-0.

Gabriela García hammered the ball into centre, giving a tricky decision for Scatliffe of whether to attempt the catch or accept the bounce. The result could have been worse, but Venezuela had two in scoring position with only one out.

They exchanged their two outs for two more runs, and suddenly at 5-0, it looked like there was only one winner in this encounter.

Team GB were their own worst enemy – but it wasn’t an inning to forget – it’s a learning curve. The players probably got more from that single inning than they did from the rest of the game combined.

Despite having just thrown over 40 pitches in the extended second inning, Hirai had no time to catch her breath at the top of the third, with an infield hit and a speedy hustle to first – GB’s first hit in the World Cup. She is a five-foot-one Shohei Ohtani.

With Saskia Davies at the plate, we saw GB register another first when Hirai swiped second. The first European player drafted into the WPBL was the centre of everything… and she had the celebration moves at the ready.

But García on the bump for Venezuela continued her World Cup scoreless streak

A pitching change saw Essex Arrows’ Oona Ylinen took the ball for Great Britain. Her looping, left-handed breaking balls caused untold timing issues for the Venezuelan hitters.

With a runner on first, a dodgy pick-off attempt gave away second base, then a passed ball moved the runner to third, before Colina’s sac-fly took the score to 6-0. Venezuela were ruthless.

A two-out single from Heredia in the nine hole then saw her move from first to third after a botched throw from Herbert trying to catch the Venezuelan napping at first.

GB knew that being aggressive was the only path to take. If they were going to lose, they were going to lose trying to win.

The ever-patient, always-dangerous Malone recovered from an 0-2 count to take her second walk of the game. GB had their leadoff hitter on base to start the fourth.

Amy Trask worked a full count before wearing the ball on her elbow-guard-less elbow. A passed ball moved the two base runners into scoring position. And still no outs. This was GB exerting their own pressure.

The torrential rain and flooding that had caused a State of Emergency being declared in Tainan, had subsided but everywhere was wet. Including Scatliffe’s bat that went flying from her bare-handed grip.

Moments later Scatliffe became García’s sixth strikeout victim.

With Briggs at the plate, an overly-ambitious pick-off attempt by Venezuela’s catcher, Stephany Suarez, failed to catch Malone inattentive. The ball could not be corralled at third base and Malone trotted – no, danced – home for Great Britain’s first run in the World Cup.

Briggs’s speed hustling up the line to first caused yet another throwing error, and now it was the turn of the World’s fifth ranked team to look less assured in the field.

Caitlin Frank came up epitomising that GB spirit. The first couple of innings were a shock to the system, but now the players were settling into the tournament. At-bats were being extended and the dugout choir was now in full voice. Frank worked the count full. Two on, two out, but STRIKEOUT – García’s skill proved too much.

Sure it was disappointing just to plate just one, but looking beyond the box score – this is Venezuela – the team with ambitions to match their men as World Champions. By comparison, Great Britain is a baseball outfit still in their infancy.

Ylinen continued in the fourth. A walk, a stolen base and a suspicious infield single gave Venezuela two on with no outs. Suspicious, as the Davies–Trask bang-bang play needed a video replay to show that Kimberly Caicedo was indeed safe at first.

Marlyn Yendez’s two-RBI single took the score to 8-1 and Ylinen’s stint on the mound was over.

Manchester Baseball’s Laura Bailes was next to take the ball. With a seven-run lead and no outs, even the most optimistic GB fans here at Bat Flips & Nerds HQ were expecting a double-digit scoreline by the end of the inning. But an exquisite Briggs to Davies to Trask double-play changed the complexion of the inning.

Although Venezuela scored a solitary run from wild pitch, another sensational infield defensive play from Bailes–Trask–Briggs picked off the runner at second, sending the team back to the dugout with spirits high.

Sometimes you have to pinch yourself to remember that this is GB’s debut in the World Cup.

García came back out for the fifth, but the GB players & fans were the loudest in the stadium. Hirai with her (and the team’s) second base hit was a beautiful double driven between the outfielders.

Super aggressive (or overly-ambitious, depending upon how generous you want to be) base running moved Hirai to third on a high-fly from the Welsh superstar Davies.

Having walked twice, Malone was the threat at the plate that García could not extinguish – and she had just scored the only World Cup run García had conceded. It could be suggested that the HBP was deliberate. It certainly was painful when Malone took the fastball to her back.

There was zero doubt in Malone’s mind as she left the field, withdrawn for pinch runner (and mother of three) Lhiez De La Paz:

“That shit was on purpose. Nobody has to tell me that.”

After 98 pitches and eight strikeouts, García was replaced for the final out by Oriannys Hernandez.

Trask took her second hit-by-pitch of the game, again to the elbow, although to be honest, she appeared to be fishing for the HBP. Hirai had sprinted home, and after an umpire conference, Trask was sent back to the plate… which meant the run scored, doubling GB’s tally.

Unfortunately, in this rain-shortened schedule – all of the games are now just five innings – it is simply too much of an uphill battle to recover from a five-spot in the second inning.

Final score: Great Britain 2 – 9 Venezuela

After so much lost time, it must have been touch-and-go whether the tournament actually commenced, but now that the first game is in the books, we need the rain Gods to be kind and allow the remaining 14 to get played.

The schedule is fluid, but provisionally, Great Britain play their next game – a stonker against the World Number 1 Japan – at 5:00am (UK time) on Wednesday.

Quick shout out for our GB Women’s Player Profile and the epic tale of how women’s baseball in the UK went from a Cornish pipe dream to World Cup reality.