Nateshon ‘Shadow’ Thomas fired Team GB into a 4-0 lead over Russia but still ended up on the losing side on Tuesday September 13, 2016 in their final first round pool game at the European Baseball Championship. Photo: Provided

But then the game blew up in GB’s faces.

Right-hander Thomas, who has been the starting shortstop during the first four games of the tournament, took over the starting pitcher job and got out of a first inning jam when the Russians loaded the bases on two singles and a walk with one out, but over the following three innings the Russians only had two base runners, and Thomas picked one of them off first base.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, a double and a walk produced a threat that Thomas ended by striking out Russia’s #3 hitter Nikita Monakhov.  But it was a very hot day, and the GB staff made the decision that five innings was as far as Thomas could go.

In an eerie echo of what happened when Rei Martinez pitched five good innings against Sweden and gave up just one run, only to see the bullpen open the floodgates, so it would prove again.

Thomas left the game after five innings with GB ahead 4-0, and by the time the bottom of the sixth had come to an end, GB was down 6-4 and the momentum was all with Russia.

Russia scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and five more in the bottom of the seventh against GB relievers Matt Maitland, Ben Pearson and Conrad Cornell, and Britain could only manage one more run by way of response.  So Russia won the game 11-5, and while both teams will now head for relegation playoffs that begin on Thursday, Russia will carry a 1-0 record with them and GB will be saddled with an 0-1 mark.

Tough situation

Their opponents from Pool B will be Croatia and Greece, and GB will almost certainly have to win both games to avoid relegation back to the European Championship Qualifier. And even then, survival might not be certain.

GB will play Croatia at 3.45 P.M. Dutch time on Thursday and Greece at 11.30 A.M. on Friday.

Head Coach Liam Carroll said, “This is now a situation I didn’t fathom heading into the tournament, and that our fate is no longer in our hands is very frustrating.  At 0-5 it’s hard to continue saying that we’re beating ourselves, but this really does show that it’s not the best team that wins but the team that plays the best – and until we commit to the process, especially within the framework of The GB Way, we’ll continue to struggle.”

The GB Baseball Team dug themselves magnificently out of a 5-0 deficit against Sweden on Monday afternoon, came back from another run behind to tie the score in the 10th inning – and then lost the game in the 11th inning to go 0-4 in the European Championship.

Whereas Sunday’s frustrating 3-2 loss to Germany could be taken as positive, and a sign of progress, today’s loss will probably be harder to accept.