The picture switches to Angelo Mori, Kenneth Burgess and Sarah Ladle in the TSG TV studios with pictures of a celebrating Tikariot team on the big screen behind them.Angelo Mori: A grand hello to all baseball fans tuning in to our breaking news special edition. In case you have not heard yet, the Free Republics, originally advancing to the play-offs as winner of group 6, have been disqualified from the World Baseball Classic due to repeated instances of sign stealing!
Sarah Ladle: The World Baseball Classic Council just announced that due to a long ongoing case of sign stealing the Free Republics have been immediately disqualified from the tournament and thus are forced to forfeit their spot in the knock-out portion of the Classic. It has further decreed that the best third-placed team would be awarded their position and as fate has it, Tikariot is exactly that team!
Kenneth Burgess: Now before the last series there had been some analysts pointing out that even as third placed team Tikariot might have more points than some nations qualifying as second of their respective group and that really ended up being the case, leading to Tikariot being the 15-seed in the playoffs, eclipsing TJUN-ia. So very good news indeed for the Devil's Rejects and their fans.
Mori: Not all that glitters is gold, though because now we will be facing Nova Anglicana, second seed and overall ranked number 3 in the world, so this is a completely new level of competition, given that we overall lost the series against fourth-ranked Ko-oren. But then again, we did win the first of the two series against Ko-oren, so that is all it would take against Nova Anglicana as well.
Ladle: What is kind of ironic is that should we get past Nova Anglicana, there is a good chance we would face Ko-oren again, kind of funny if you look at it like that.
Mori: Speaking of looking, let's have a look at Nova Anglicana and their journey through the World Baseball Classic so far.
Ladle: Nova Anglicana was drawn into group 5, together with Hapilopper, Zwangzug, Equestrian States, Jeckland and Ihilthracna, as favourites to win the group. Ranked number 3 in the world, the Lions are the defending world champions, fielding almost the same team that had won them the trophy the last time around, but with a mostly new coaching staff. At the helm they have Mark Singleton, also manager of the Vinovium Gunners that made it into the Nova Anglican series last season. Despite his young age he is considered a very talented coach that embraces the statistics-based approach, using sabermetrics as tool to spice up the traditional methods in order to get the best out of the team. Names don't mean much to him, if it means that he sees an advantage to shake thing up and surprise the opponent.
Burgess: The group stage was a breeze for the Lions, finishing with an impressive 23-7 record and a very comfortable +44 run differential, not dropping a single series in the process. Ihilthracna, the Equestrian States and Zwangzug they blew off 5-1 each, while Hapilopper and Jeckland managed to win two games each in their respective series, showing that Nova Anglicana definitely meant business. Interesting, though, that 5th placed Jeckland technically had the best record against the Lions with a 2-4 and 33-35 aggregated result, which again shows that the level of competition is to tight in the WBC that pretty much almost anything is possible.
Mori: One of the biggest strengths of the Nova Anglican squad undoubtedly is a very tight and experienced core that has been playing together for a long time and under the forward-thinking tutelage of coach Singleton really has shown that they could go all the way for a second time in a row. On the flipside, though, the experience and with that the combined age of the team could work against the Lions, as the WBC is a very intense competition with five series per day and only very few days off, which puts a very high physical strain on the players and as the tournament progresses, this could become a factor. How much experience can outweigh that element is up in the air, as some players have learned over the years how to preserve their strength over a longer period of time, but I think that especially the pitching department could potentially suffer, also because they have had a few long games, so this is something to look out for and hope.
Burgess: So where do we sit in this game?
Ladle: Well, we're one of three unranked teams that made it into the playoffs, which in itself already is quite an achievement, so I don't think anybody would fault us for not advancing any further. So in a way this takes away a lot of pressure from our team, because we already exceeded what was expected from us to begin with. And in turn this also increases the pressure on Nova Anglicana, because they don't want to be the clear favourite to crash out against an unranked, low-seeded team. I think that the opening innings might be crucial in this regard to potentially make them nervous, if things don't go their way and they feel pressure mounting and force them into mistakes.
Burgess: That is true. Baseball is a sport where it is difficult to really put direct pressure on someone, as you don't have this direct contact that you have in football or hockey or basketball, so it is a lot more psychological in nature if you want to unnerve your opponent. And this is something that Tikariot has managed to be able to do, both in the International Baseball Slam and now here in the World Baseball Classic. Now some people have said that the level of expectation on our team has risen as well due to winning the Slam and now making it to the playoffs. While this is true, you have to see the context of the position we are sitting in right now and I firmly believe that the pressure on the Lions is exponentially bigger than on us.
Ladle: Good analysis on this point, Kenneth, now one point all of you made, Angelo, is the pitching of Nova Anglicana. They had seven extra inning games, and a pretty even record for starters and bullpen. Now while one could argue that this means that the workload has been quite evenly split between pitchers, couldn't it rather also be seen as that they don't have any particular player that is really well rested to shoulder a bigger portion of the games?
Mori: That's actually a pretty good point there, Sarah. As it sits right now, Cory Sharpe and Hank Jackson have had the best stats throughout the tournament while Dan Cunningham and Erik Russell have been so-so and Wyatt Templeton has had one abysmal game against Jeckland, so this shows that it's strongly day-to-day here and that this could be one of our chances, if we manage to catch one of the starters on a bad day.
Burgess: On the other hand the bullpen has been pretty consistent, which is definitely a plus for the Lions, but often if the starters start to show nervousness, it can infect the bullpen as well, so at this point I would not necessarily single out the pitching as Nova Anglicana's biggest strength.
Ladle: Alright, let's quickly go to Centralia, where our team has arrived not long ago, Sean Callahan has coach Graham McCrory on the microphone. Sean, how are things looking over there?
Sean Callahan: Thanks Sarah. Things are looking good here, the team seems pumped for a second chance at this thanks to the disqualification of the Free Republics and spirits are high!
Ladle: Great, I heard that you have Coach McCrory with you?
Callahan: Yes, I do. Graham, how does it feel to still be in this?
Graham McCrory: Feels great! You know, when you're packing your things to go home because you've been eliminated and then get the call that you're still alive in this, it's an awesome feeling! Makes you feel that you can take on the world now!
Callahan: Well, you don't quite have to take on the world, but Nova Anglicana, which is quite the heavyweight in international baseball.
McCrory: Sure they are, you don't win a Classic as a fluke, so it means something big. And if you look at them, they still got most of their championship players together, so that's a tight-knit team. But they're getting old. I've watched a few of their games and even though they won most of them, you could see that the arms of their pitchers are getting a bit heavier and if you look at the press, they're pretty much expecting them to go deep again.
Callahan: How do you see the chances for Tikariot in this?
McCrory: We already were gone and now are back in it. We managed to stand tall in a really tough group and what do we really have to lose? Other than the series, of course. Nothing. We managed to put baseball on the map in Tikariot and if anyone would have told me two months ago that we'd be in the playoffs at the Classic, I'd have told them to go play cards with a flowerpot in the outhouse.
Callahan: Interesting metaphor. So do you think you can get by Nova Anglicana?
McCrory: Anything's possible. I'll make sure to have the kids focused and doing what they do best and then we'll see what happens.
Callahan: How is the team looking, any injury worries?
McCrory: Vincent is the only one with some light hamstring issues, so if he can't play, Blair will come on and he's been doing great so far in the Classic, so even if Vincent is out of the lineup I do not foresee any drop in quality.
Callahan: Thank you, Graham, I know that you want to go in and get the team zoned in, good luck tonight! So here you have it, the team is positive and confident, so maybe we'll see another baseball miracle in the makings. Back to you, Angelo.
Mori: Thanks Sean. Good to hear that the staff seems realistic and positive. So what is your prediction on how things will go, Kenneth?
Burgess: This is the hard part, because it is so unpredictable. And head and heart diverge big time. Rationally Nova Anglicana is by far the favourite and one should expect them to walk out of Centralia the winners, but having followed the Devil's Rejects through a tournament and a half now, I can't help but feel that there is a distinct chance that they might stage the upset. And as Sean had mentioned, they have a second life in this, so this could definitely give them another boost of confidence to be able to show the world that they deserve to be in the playoffs. So I'll go out on a limb and predict a 2-1 win for Tikariot, but it'll be a really tight squeeze.
Mori: Sarah?
Ladle: I'm in the same situation here, with my brain and my heart conflicting, but I think that the favourite will take this one. They have the experience and have less fluctation in form, so I am afraid they will make it. Now you're the tie breaker here, Angelo.
Mori: I-I was dreading this moment, haha. Am I allowed to do a coinflip? No? Alright. I'm just going to say Tikariot goes through. There, I said it. Both of you have good points, but I agree with Kenneth, we have less pressure and the younger team, plus that extra confidence boost that we came back after technically already having been eliminated.
Ladle: There we go, I'm outnumbered. However it goes, this is a big day for Tikariotian baseball and who knows, we might still be left standing by the time tomorrow rolls around. Make sure to tune in for our live coverage of our first playoff series against Nova Anglicana, we will be broadcasting extended hours, so we will be on the air an hour before the first pitch to get you up to date with all the latest details and updates on the team before we go into the knock-out stage of the World Baseball Slam. From all of us a good day and see you soon!