4 Mar 2013

Sport: Samoa survive scare to maintain unbeaten start to World Softball Champs

11:32 am on 4 March 2013

Samoa survived a major scare to keep its unbeaten record at the World Softball Championship.

Leading 7-0 in their third pool match against Indonesia on Sunday, the Tanifa needed just one more out in the fifth inning to invoke the mercy rule.

But, as coach Chris Kohlhase explains, things didn't go quite so smoothly.

"They scored a run and then came back with nine more and things went from one thing to another and before we knew it the score was 10-all. A win is still a win - even though it was an ugly win - we still got home and it was good to get the boys' feet back on the ground."

Next up is a Venezuela team who thrashed the Czech Republic 7-0.

Chris Kohlhase says there's no shortage of motivation as they close in on a spot in the knockout rounds.

Once you get your four wins then you can start controlling your own destiny and putting yourself closer to the top of the mark sort of thing. Until you get those four wins you can drop out at any time - the US lost again today so they're not doing us any favours. We wanted them to go through and beat everyone else. But as soon as you get those four wins you're back in control of things and you can sort of control what's going on.