By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
J’Quann “JQ” Smith, left, and Raymore Mercer
Outfielders Rayondre Mercer and J’Quann ‘JQ’ Smith, are playing with Great Britain in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U23 World Cup, at the Shaoxing Baseball and Softball Sports Culture Center in Shaoxing City, China, through Sunday.
Mercer and Smith started in four of the five first round games together in Centerfield and Left Field respectively. Great Britain lost the opener 5-3, to host China in extra innings. Great Britain followed up with a 6-4 setback vs Colombia, in their next game.
Then, Great Britain led for the 3rd straight game before succumbing to Puerto Rico, 8-3. Smith drove in the 2nd run and Mercer had 2 of Great Britain’s 6 hits in three at bats. He scored one of the 3 runs.
Great Britain scored 4 runs in the 3rd , 4th , and 5th innings, but came up a run short in a 13-12 loss to Australia, Mercer who was hit by a pitch, walked in 2 at bats, stole a base and scored 2 runs. Smith didn’t play.
Great Britain ended Group A play with a 4-1 loss to Japan on Tuesday, in a game that was delayed by rain and cut short in the fifth inning by bad weather.
“The experience here has been fun even though we didn’t get the results we wanted to, we’ve still been able to play against some of the top countries in the world and see how they go about baseball,” Mercer told Island Sun Sports in an exclusive Wednesday morning interview. “We even get to meet the players and learn about their culture because most of us are staying in the same hotel. When we go for breakfast, lunch and dinner, we’re among most of the other teams. There are some guys we play cards with—even though there’s a language barrier—some speak English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, whatever, but it still has been fun.”
Mercer said that it’s also nice to have Smith on the team—someone he grew up with from a small country—with him representing the BVI on the Great Britain team, which is also fun.
“I know Chino (late Terrance “Chino” Chinnery who got them into baseball) would be happy,” he said of his mentor. “It’s been fun and the experience has been great as well.”
Last year, Mercer was joined by Kennard Dawson, who was installed as one of the captains and Demoi Hodge, on the Great Britain team that qualified for its first European U23 Baseball final, where they finished second to the Netherlands. That result qualified them for this year’s WBSC U23 World Cup.
BVI falters in Nations League
St. Kitts and Nevis’ Tiquanny Williams scored twice—his fourth goals in two CONCACAF Nations League games—propelling them to a 2-0 victory over the BVI at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in the Cayman Islands on Tuesday.
St. Kitts and Nevis dominated the game, controlling the ball for 88% of play, took 619 passes to the BVI’s 140 and had an 88% passing accuracy. The Sugar Boys took 14 shots to the BVI Nature Boyz’s 4 and had a 7-1 edge in corner kicks.
Last Wednesday, Host Cayman Islands got a goal in the 84th minute to beat the BVI, 1-0. They had a 12-3 edge on shots taken over the BVI and a 5-2 advantage on corner kicks.
Tuesday’s loss to St. Kitts and Nevis, was the BVI’s fourth straight loss and fifth game in which they didn’t score, after tying with the U.S. Virgin Islands 1-1, in their World Cup Qualifying match in early March. Prior to that, the BVI had scored a goal in six straight games dating back to a 3-1 home loss to Puerto Rico in March 2022.
The BVI will face St. Kitts and Nevis on October 11 in their next Nations League match, then take on the Cayman Islands on October 14. All three matches will be played at a site yet to be determined.
