{"id":42,"date":"2026-03-08T20:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/?p=42"},"modified":"2026-03-09T01:21:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:21:52","slug":"usa-vs-great-britain-wbc-game-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/2026\/03\/08\/usa-vs-great-britain-wbc-game-report\/","title":{"rendered":"USA vs Great Britain WBC Game Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40521\/2026\/03\/Gunnar-PCA.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40521\/2026\/03\/Gunnar-PCA.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44\" srcset=\"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40521\/2026\/03\/Gunnar-PCA.jpg 700w, https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40521\/2026\/03\/Gunnar-PCA-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40521\/2026\/03\/Gunnar-PCA-144x96.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;United States national baseball team&nbsp;took control and defeated the&nbsp;Great Britain national baseball team&nbsp;9\u20131, but the game didn\u2019t start the way I expected. On the very first pitch, Great Britain\u2019s&nbsp;Nate Eaton&nbsp;crushed a fastball from&nbsp;Tarik Skubal&nbsp;over the fence for a solo home run. Just like that, Great Britain had a&nbsp;1\u20130 lead&nbsp;before most people even settled in, and for a few innings, it felt like the game might stay close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the first few innings, the United States lineup really struggled to get going. Great Britain\u2019s pitchers did a good job keeping hitters off balance, and it felt like every at-bat was a battle. But once the U.S. finally broke through, the momentum completely shifted. The turning point came in the&nbsp;fifth inning.&nbsp;Ernie Clement&nbsp;helped start the rally and eventually scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 1\u20131. Not long after that,&nbsp;Kyle Schwarber&nbsp;stepped up and crushed a&nbsp;two-run home run&nbsp;to right field, giving the United States a&nbsp;3\u20131 lead. When that ball left the park, it felt like the game was finally in Team USA\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my favorite players,&nbsp;Gunnar Henderson, had an incredible night at the plate. He finished&nbsp;4-for-5 with two RBIs and an extra-base hit, and every time he came up it seemed like he was putting together a smart, productive at-bat. His biggest hit was a&nbsp;two-run double&nbsp;into the gap that scored&nbsp;Alex Bregman&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bryce Harper, which really helped extend the lead and make it feel like the United States offense was fully in control. The rest of the lineup kept the runs coming. Bregman added a&nbsp;sacrifice fly,&nbsp;Aaron Judge&nbsp;delivered an&nbsp;RBI single, and&nbsp;Will Smith&nbsp;contributed another sacrifice fly. By the middle innings, the U.S. offense was rolling, and Great Britain\u2019s pitchers were running out of answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the pitching side, after that first-pitch home run, Skubal really settled in and finished with&nbsp;five strikeouts in three innings. The bullpen took over from there, with&nbsp;Clay Holmes&nbsp;throwing&nbsp;three scoreless innings and striking out six hitters&nbsp;to shut down Great Britain\u2019s lineup. Great Britain struggled after that early home run. One of their biggest names,&nbsp;Jazz Chisholm Jr., had a tough night and went&nbsp;0-for-4 with four strikeouts, which made it hard for them to stay in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the game,\u00a0Gunnar Henderson\u00a0was asked what was going through his mind after he hit his two-run double and was yelling on second base. \u201c<strong>Not much honestly. As soon as I rounded first my head kind of cleared. I knew I had to follow up Kyle\u2019s homer, but you live for those kinds of moments as a ballplayer,<\/strong>\u201d Henderson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though the game started with Eaton\u2019s surprise home run, the United States eventually took over with strong pitching, smart hitting, and consistent offense. Henderson\u2019s four-hit night and Schwarber\u2019s big home run were definitely the highlights for me as Team USA pulled away for the&nbsp;9\u20131 win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The&nbsp;United States national baseball team&nbsp;took control and defeated the&nbsp;Great Britain national baseball team&nbsp;9\u20131, but the game didn\u2019t start the way I expected. On the very first pitch, Great Britain\u2019s&nbsp;Nate Eaton&nbsp;crushed a fastball from&nbsp;Tarik Skubal&nbsp;over the fence for a solo home run. Just like that, Great Britain had a&nbsp;1\u20130 lead&nbsp;before most people even settled in, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31973,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31973"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/student.wp.odu.edu\/dkenn013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}