by Bob Fromer
Mlade Buky, Czech Republic -- Never, ever count the Chromies out, especially when their backs are to the wall. On Friday evening at the European Slowpitch Super Cup in the Czech Republic, Chromies subjected H2O to a comprehensive 14-3 defeat in the 1v2 Page Playoff game. The win put the Chromies into Saturday evening's final and left H2O to get past the German team UCE Travellers on Saturday afternoon before they can join them.
Not that the Chromies' backs were to the wall in terms of today's result – whoever lost this game was still going to be in with a better than even chance of getting to the final. And there is always that debate about whether playing the pre-final game is better than waiting all day and coming to the final cold.
But Chromies are now a team with only four fit male players. With Jarrod Pretorius and Lee Rowe both nursing hamstring injuries and no one else to call on, Chromies have had to leave Lee on the bench, play a hobbling Jarrod at third base and move Jenny Ball, the best female third base player in the competition – or maybe the best, period -- to second base.
And despite all this – or maybe because of it – Chromies brought H2O's eight-game winning streak to a shuddering halt, forced a bunch of mistakes and never let H2O into the game. The heads of some H2O players went down even before the game was completely out of reach, which didn't really happen until the Chromies launched one of their typical feeding frenzies in the top of the sixth inning and scored five runs on seven consecutive hits to move the score from 8-1 to 13-1.
But for an H2O team that had cruised through the tournament to this point, employing a versatile group of players at different positions and playing confident and effective softball, this result – and the manner of it – will reawaken all those fears, sown over the last few frustrating years at the Premier Nationals, about whether they can really beat the Chromies when the chips are down.
Setting the scene
Before we get to the game itself, let's bring the tournament up to date.
The final standings in the Championship playoff group after the final group games were played on Friday morning was:
H2O (5-0)
Chromies (4-1)
UCE Travellers (Germany) (2-3)
Lisicke (Slovenia) (2-3)
Askoe Linz Bandits (Austria) (2-3)
Kiely's Kegs (Ireland) (0-5)
A report on Friday morning's games involving H2O and the Chromies can be found below.
On Friday afternoon, the top four teams from that Championship playoff group began the Page Playoff. In the 3v4 game, UCE Travellers pulled steadily away from Lisicke to win 12-5 after the Slovenians had taken an early lead. A five-run bottom of the sixth inning removed any doubts for UCE Travellers, and the key blows in that rally were a two-run single by Lucy Binding (yes, that Lucy Binding) and then a two-run home run by shortstop Max Zerhusen.
So the UCE Travellers will play H2O at 1.30 pm on Saturday, and the winner will join Chromies in the final. When the teams met earlier in the week, H2O won by 15-0 – but that was then, and tomorrow could be different. As the tournament has progressed, games have gotten closer, even for the British teams who were blowing the opposition away earlier in the week.
The team that was most disappointed to miss out on the Page Playoffs was the Askoe Linz Bandits from Austria, who played well for much of the week and lost out to UCE Travellers and Lisicke on runs conceded in the Championship playoff group. But Linz will have gotten some satisfaction from beating Kiely's Kegs in a tight fifth place game by a score of 8-7.
Meanwhile, the Consolation playoffs have also reached the Page Playoff stage. In the 1v2 game, one Czech team, Wayne's World, defeated another Czech team, Rytiri Trutnov, by 13-12 to reach the Consolation final.
In the 3v4 game, the Afterburners from Belgium defeated the host Czech club Sparks Mlade Buky by 15-12, and so the Afterburners will meet Rytiri Trutnov on Saturday morning, with the winner playing Wayne's World in the consolation final.
H2O v Chromies
When the two British teams met in the first game of the Championship playoff round on Thursday, H2O stormed out of the blocks with four runs in the first inning, six in the second and five in the third, and rode that outburst to an easy 19-10 win.
Friday evening's game was a very different affair.
This time it was Chromies who jumped out to the early lead in the top of the first inning, albeit it was only a modest two runs. Danny Gunn, who continued his torrid extra-base hitting with two triples and a home run in this game, led off with one of his triples and scored on a one-out single by Ryan Martin. Ryan came home on a double to centre field that dropped just out of the reach of H2O left centre fielder Susie Hall.
H2O put two runners on base but failed to score in the bottom of the first inning, and no one scored in the second. There were two reasons why H2O failed to score in the bottom of the second inning, however – a great diving catch by Jenny Ball at second base on a line drive off the bat of Jenny Patterson, and then a miraculous diving stop and throw at third base by the hobbling Jarrod Pretorius on a sharply-hit ball down the line by Brad Gilmour.
Jarrod's lack of mobility was obvious, and for the first few inning it looked like H2O might be targeting him. But Jarrod followed that play on Brad Gilmour's hit with a leaping catch a couple of innings later on a line shot hit by Vicky Chapman, and it was clear that whatever Jarrod's limitations, nothing was going to get past him. Whether he can pull this off again if the two teams meet in the final remains to be seen.
Pulling away
Gradually, the Chromies began to stretch their lead. A home run over the fence in left centre field by Ryan Martin in the top of the third inning made the score 3-0 for Chromies. Certainly no need for panic, but there was already an unmistakeable feeling that this wouldn't be H2O's day.
Four more runs came in for the Chromies in the top of the fourth inning, and suddenly it was 7-0. There were two H2O errors in the inning, consecutive singles by Michael Lee, Marketa Sulcova and Jarrod Pretorius and a home run by Danny Gunn.
H2O finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning when Jeff Swindell hit a solo home run – but that half inning also featured the great leaping catch by Jarrod Pretorius and H2O's Brian Connolly uncharacteristically getting caught between second and third base after a double. Nothing was going right for H2O.
H2O changed pitchers after the fourth inning, with Roger Grooms replacing Brad Gilmour, but it didn't have much effect. Chromies made it 8-1 with a run in the fifth inning. But the killer blow was administered in the top of the sixth inning, which went like this: a triple by Danny Gunn, a single by Jenny Ball, a home run by Ryan Martin (his second of the game) and four more singles by Mo Flett, David Lee, Michaela Sulcova and Michael Lee. That was pretty much game, set and match, though H2O did score a couple of runs in the bottom of the sixth and final score was 14-3.
H2O's frustration was summed up by their talisman, Steve Hazard, who has hit 13 home runs so far in this tournament and has seemed unstoppable at the plate. In this game, clearly trying too hard, Steve flied out to left, flied out to centre, popped out to short and grounded into a fielder's choice.
No one will have to tell the Chromies that a repeat of that batting line is unlikely to happen if H2O gets to the final.
For the spectators here in Mlade Buky – and there have been a fair number of them, including, of course, other teams in the competition – tomorrow's final is beautifully set up, assuming that H2O get there.
H2O and the Chromies have met twice so far in this first European Slowpitch Super Cup, and each team has been dominant in one of the games. However much it might remind people of Chelsea and Man United playing a European Cup Final in Moscow, the final we're most likely to get on Saturday, with all due respect to the UCE Travellers, will be a fascinating affair – and as much a mental battle as anything that happens on the field.
Earlier on Friday
Both H2O and the Chromies played their final second round games on Friday morning. The two British teams were always going to finish first and second whatever the results of those games, and that lack of urgency for H2O and the Chromies may have contributed to two well-played and close games, both of them won eventually by the British.
The first game, between H2O and an Askoe Linz Bandits team whose only hope of staying in the tournament was to win, was close all the way through, and H2O only won by a score of 9-7.
The second game, between Chromies and the UCE Travellers, was also close for six innings, until Chromies pulled away with a seven-run top of the seventh inning to win by 18-10.
Both games featured excellent fielding on both sides and some very good pitching. The difference between the British teams and their opponents, as it has been all week, was power.
In the game between H2O and Askoe Linz Bandits, Steve Hazard belted three solo home runs to left field in his three at-bats, giving him 13 for the competition. But the coup de grace, and the runs that swung a 6-6 game in H2O's favour, came on Steve's third home run leading off the bottom of the sixth inning, followed by a two-run shot by Jeff Swindell after Muireann Grooms had singled.
In the game between Chromies and the UCE Travellers, where Chromies only led by 8-7 after five innings, Chromies pitcher David Lee put three over the left field wall, good for five RBIs, while Danny Gunn had both an inside-the-park and a fence-clearing home run for six RBIs and Michael Lee hit a solo shot, with the homers accounting for 12 of the 18 runs that the Chromies eventually scored.
Not to be outdone, the Germans mustered some power of their own, with Wolfgang Walther matching Danny Gunn with both an inside-the-park and a conventional home run, while Max Verhusen came all the way around to score on a line drive into the right field corner.
But no one in this tournament has cleared the fences like the British. Between them, the Chromies and H2O have now hit 41 home runs, most of them clearing fences in one or another of the three venues this tournament has employed.
H2O v Askoe Linz Bandits
This game turned out to be one of best of the competition so far – not so much in terms of sheer excitement, close as it was, but rather in terms of being well played in every facet of the game.
Both defenses were excellent, with each team committing only two errors. Roger Grooms, Steve Hazard and Susie Hall at third base all made excellent and athletic plays for H2O while Joann Capellan in right centre field and Rachel Riley at second base shone for the Austrians.
Both pitchers – Roger Grooms for H2O and Roland Traweger for Linz – stayed ahead of hitters, hit the corners and generally demonstrated how really good slowpitch pitching can hold an offense down. The only H2O hitter that Roland Traweger really couldn't deal with was Steve Hazard – but who can? This will be a problem that David Lee and the Chromies will have to contend with in Friday evening's 1v2 game and probably in Saturday's final.
The Austrians also achieved something that no one else has managed so far in this tournament – they took a lead against H2O, with three runs in the top of the first inning, and stretched the lead to 4-1 in the top of the second and 5-2 in the top of the third.
But H2O tied the game at 5-5 with three runs in the fourth inning (Steve Hazard's second home and a two-run single by Jenny Patterson) and finally took the lead at 6-5 in the sixth. The Austrians tied the score again when Stefan Schmidt doubled and Joann Capellan singled in the bottom of the sixth inning. But then came the Steve Hazard and Jeff Swindell home runs in the top of the seventh that put H2O 9-6 ahead.
The Austrians had a lead-off triple from Richard Rodriguez to open the bottom of the seventh inning, and he scored on Rachel Riley's groundout. But Roger Grooms finished the game with a third-strike foul strikeout of Austrian fastpitch international Martina Lackner, and H2O's undefeated record remained intact, leaving Askoe Linz Bandits, who were resigned to their fate before the game, with only a fifth-place placing game left to play.
Chromies v UCE Travellers
The game between the Chromies and the UCE Travellers had no meaning for either side, whose positions in the Page Playoff round were already guaranteed. But the Germans had a very good go at inflicting Chromies' second defeat of the tournament, and took a 5-4 lead at the end of the second inning.
A triple by Jenny Ball and David Lee's second home run of the contest put Chromies back on top by 6-5 in the top of the third inning, and they never relinquished that lead. But they also never quite managed to pull away until the very end.
A two-run inside-the-park home run by Danny Gunn in the top of the fourth inning stretched the lead to 8-5, but by the bottom of the fifth, the Germans had pulled to within a run at 8-7.
Chromies' answer was to score three runs in the top of the sixth inning on singles by Michaela and Marketa Sulcova, an outfield error on a ball hit by Michael Lee and a triple by Danny Gunn, who was 4-for-4 with two home runs, a triple and a single. His consistency throughout the tournament has been awesome, and a Best Batter award may await at the end of it.
The Germans cut the lead to 11-8 at the end of the sixth inning, but then the Chromies blew the game open with seven runs in the top of the seventh inning as they batted around the order. Ryan Martin and Michael Sulcova had doubles, and Danny's Gunn second home run of the game, this one over the left field fence, was the icing on the cake. The final score, as the Germans scored a couple of consolation runs in the bottom of the seventh, was 18-10.