Team Hong Kong is all smiles despite their loss to Team Canada Wednesday. Pictured in the black shirt is the team's bat boy from Prince Albert, Astro's U13 player Colt Mudry. (Teena Monteleeone/paNOW)

By Teena Monteleone

International spotlight

Team Hong Kong elated to go seven innings against Canada

Jul 11, 2024 | 4:32 PM

The softball team from Hong Kong, China lost their first game at the WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup qualifier tournament in Prince Albert…but you wouldn’t have known it by looking at the smiles on their faces in the dugout.

“We’re just really excited that we can play against the best teams in the world,” said head coach Jacob Pang.

Despite the loss, the team that sits No. 24 in world rankings went a full seven innings Wednesday night against Team Canada that sits at No. 3.

At the top of the 6^th inning, when Trevor Tak Hei Cheung singled to left field to score Corey Wing-Sum Ng, the players were elated.

“We’re not thinking win or lose too much. We are just presenting the best version of Hong Kong team here. We had a completed game with Canada and of course we lost, but we are so happy to play them for seven innings,” he said.

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Hong Kong, China outfielder Wai Leong Wong celebrates after hitting a double versus Canada on opening night on Wednesday. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

Pang only had about a month and half to form and finalize a roster for the event. The team tried to organize additional training so they could prepare, but most of the athletes have careers and Pang said the working day in Hong Kong is notoriously long. (A 2023 survey from Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions showed more than half of employees log over 45 hours a week, some longer than 70 hours.) About a third of the players are full time university students.

“One of our players is actually a dentist in Hong Kong. Of course, he has a very, very busy professional life and for his career he needs to continue professional developments and has to study while playing softball at the same time. So, its not easy playing for the national team in Hong Kong because we are not full-time professional players.”

Pang said softball is actually not very popular in Hong Kong. He estimates there are only 4,000 to 5,000 players in the country and about half of them don’t even start playing softball until they reach secondary school or university.

“There are maybe only 15 secondary schools in Hong Kong that have softball teams. But those schools provide some good players for us,” Pang said.

For some of the current team members, this is the second time they’ve had the opportunity to participate in an international softball event hosted in Canada. Pang was a player himself when they visited Whitehorse, Yukon for the WBSC Men’s Softball World Championship in 2017.

“To be honest, we never expected that this time we would get the wild card and all of us are very excited that we can play again in the World Cup and also again in Canada.”

Hong Kong, China pitcher Yuk Sing Ling gets ready to deliver a pitch against Canada during day one action at the Group B Qualifiers. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

Team Hong Kong will head home with at least one win under their belts. They defeated the team from Israel 3-2 Thursday afternoon.

Team Canada was preparing for a double header starting at 4 p.m. against Singapore. The national team will then play Argentina at 7 p.m. All of the action takes place on Rotary Field in Prime Minister’s Park.

The top two teams from this qualifying event will advance to the finals next year, which is also being held in Prince Albert.

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panews@pattisonmedia.com