World Baseball Classic 2023: Great Britain qualify for first time after beating Spain 10-9
- Published
California-born Alex Crosby spent the 2022 season playing for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in the independent Atlantic League
Great Britain have qualified for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time in their history.
The WBC, first staged in 2006, features the world's best international teams in an event equivalent to a World Cup in football, cricket or rugby.
Its fifth edition will be hosted by the USA, Japan and Taiwan in March 2023.
GB, the lowest-ranked team to have qualified so far for 2023, booked their place with a 10-9 victory over Spain in a final qualifying match on Tuesday.
With the game tied at 9-9, it went to extra innings - and in the bottom of the 10th, Alex Crosby hit a sacrifice fly deep to left field, allowing Matt Koperniak to score from third base for a walk-off win.
They had previously overcome France and hosts Germany in the 12-team double-elimination qualifying event at the Armin-Wolf-Arena in Regensburg.
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The majority of the GB squad are prospects who play in the lower levels of minor league baseball, or in independent leagues, in the USA.
London-born Koperniak, for instance, plays at Double-A level in the St Louis Cardinals organisation - two rungs below Major League Baseball.
However, two current MLB players represented GB in the qualifying tournament for the 2017 WBC - Houston Astros pitcher Blake Taylor and Miami Marlins second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr - who could be open to playing for GB in 2023 as they would only miss spring training games rather than regular season matches.