By Julie Spittle
The GB Cubs Under-13 Girls’ National Team finished off the 2022 European Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy Tournament with two round-robin losses on Friday 12 August in Collecchio, Italy, and then a final defeat in the Sport Division bronze medal game on Saturday.
The round-robin losses on Friday were against Italy One and Joudrs Orange from the Czech Republic, and defeat in the bronze medal game on Saturday was again inflicted by Joudrs Orange.
Friday -- Italy One 16, GB Cubs 1
The Cubs were the visitors in their return match with Italy One and sent five batters to the plate against Italian starting pitcher Giola Marcon in the top of the first inning, with Emma Lanza and Lily Daniels drawing walks. Megan Rollins advanced the runners with a groundout to first base but a strikeout ended the inning with no runs scored.
Lily Daniels was in the circle for GB and Clara Fontana behind the plate as the Italians came to bat in the bottom of the first inning and scored six runs. A line drive to Amelie Caesar at second base, a tag by Megan Rollins at first base after a dropped third strike and a pop out to Anna Kingston at shortstop were the three Italian outs.
GB was scoreless again in the top of the second inning, though Rebecca Longman reached on a walk, and the Italians then scored a further eight runs in the bottom of the inning.
In the top of the third inning, Clara Fontana reached base on a walk with one out and stole second and third, while Lily Daniels also walked and stole second. Clara came home to score the Cubs’ only run of the game on a groundout by Megan Rollins, but Lily was out at home trying to score on the same play.
That made the score 14-1, but the Italians scored a final two runs in the bottom of the inning to end the game on the mercy rule.
Friday -- Joudrs Orange 20, GB Cubs 0
The Cubs had a couple of scoring threats but couldn’t get any of their baserunners home and suffered their only scoreless game of the tournament.
Clara Fontana, Anna Kingston, Lola Thomas and Erin Hart all got into scoring position at various points but were left stranded.
Meanwhile, the Joudrs offense kept GB outfielders on their toes, hitting the ball to all areas of the field, though there were some excellent stops and relay throws to keep things from getting out of hand.
The Czechs scored seven runs in the first inning, but just two runs each in the second and third innings before a final nine runs in the top of the fourth inning brought up a mercy rule scoreline.
Saturday -- Bronze Medal Game:
Joudrs Orange 18, GB Cubs 5
After facing the Czech team Joudrs Orange in the last round-robin game on Friday, the GB Cubs had to play them again the morning after in the bronze medal game in the Sport Division. As GB had finished fourth in the round-robin and Joudrs third, GB were the away team.
Unfortunately, it was a quick four-up and three-down for GB in the top of the first inning, with Lily Daniels left stranded after reaching on a walk and stealing second base.
Lily Daniels was in the circle when the Cubs took the field, with Clara Fontana behind the plate, and Joudrs staged an immediate assault based on walks, hits and errors, good for 11 runs. Their first out came early in the inning but the other outs came when they showed good sportsmanship and helped us out.
The Cubs came into bat again in the top of the second inning and even though Joudrs had just scored 11 runs, no one was downhearted about it. Instead, they picked up their bats and were raring to go.
Anna Kingston reached on a walk and advanced to second when Lola Thomas was hit by a pitch. While Sapphire Lyon-Carroll was at the plate both Anna and Lola advanced on a wild pitch – and then another. Anna had scored, and the way the dugout erupted you would have thought we had won the final!
Sapphire eventually reached on another walk and then Rebecca Longman grounded back to the pitcher. Unfortunately, the result was a 1-3-2 double play, with Lola out at the plate, and the inning then ended when Megan Rollins grounded out to shortstop. GB was back in the field, but with renewed vigour because we had scored!
Joudrs scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning, but Lily Daniels recorded two strikeouts.
That brought up the top of the Cubs’ order in the top of the third inning, and Emma Lanza led off with a walk, Amelie Caesar singled up the middle and both Emma and Amelie moved up on two wild pitches, with Emma scoring.
Czech relief pitcher Karolina Langova then walked Lily Daniels, Erin Hart, Anna Kingston and Lily Bateman, and though Amelie was eventually caught in a rundown and tagged out at third, Lily, Erin and Anna all scored, cutting the Czech lead to 14-5.
However, Joudrs scored a further four runs in the bottom of the third inning and Karolina Langova retired three Cubs in order in the top of the fourth inning to end the game, with the final score Joudrs Orange 18, GB Cubs 5.
What a week!
The GB Cubs brought home a silver medal in 2019, but that was before the pandemic, when we had players who had played and toured together previously and whose knowledge of the game was greater than the squad we were able to assemble in 2022.
This year, after everything had to stop for more than 18 months. we had only one player who had previously been on tour with us. We had to find new players who wanted to play and most of them were brand new to the game. They only started learning earlier this year and had never seen this level of competition before.
The new GBFL Under-14 League that started this year helped these players to begin understanding the game, but not to the level of the players we faced, who train a lot more than we do.
But we bring a team to this tournament to help players improve, find their feet and make new friends. There was improvement every day, and that is what we aim for.
We scored 16 runs over the course of the tournament, but our scores do not reflect our effort. The errors were fewer every day and the players all supported each other with cheers, chanting and laughter. Win or lose, they had a smile on their faces. They are a close-knit team who supported each other all the way and they have learned to do that in a very short space of time.
The coaches and parents are proud of this team and we look forward to watching them improve. This was hopefully the start of their GB journey and we look forward to supporting them for as far as they wish to go.
Scores and standings
Scores in the Sport and Future Divisions at the European Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy (EMRYT) Tournament on Friday 12 August as the round-robin stage came to a close were:
Sport Division
Israel Sabras 12, Joudrs Orange 1
Italy One 16, GB Cubs 1 (3 inns)
Joudrs Orange 20, GB Cubs 0 (4 inns)
Italy One 24, Israel Sabras 3 (3 inns)
Future Division
Joudrs Navy 5, Seleccion Navarra 4
Italy Two 5, Princ Zagreb 3
Seleccion Navarra 10, Princ Zagreb 2 (4 inns)
Joudrs Navy 5, Italy Two 0 (forfeit)
Final round-robin standings after Friday’s games were:
Sport Division
Italy One (5-1)
Israel Sabras (5-1)
Joudrs Orange (2-4)
GB Cubs (0-6)
Future Division
Joudrs Navy (5-1)
Seleccion Navarra (4-2)
Italy Two (3-3)
Princ Zagreb (0-6)
With only four teams each in the Sport and Future Divisions at the 2022 European Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy Tournament, all teams were involved in either bronze medal or gold medal games on Saturday. The results were:
SPORT DIVISION
Bronze Medal Game
Joudrs Orange 18, GB Cubs 5 (4 inns)
Gold Medal Game
Italy One 17, Israel Sabras 2 (3 inns)
FUTURE DIVISION
Bronze Medal Game
Italy Two 12, Princ Zagreb 0
Gold Medal Game
Seleccion Navarra 4, Joudrs Navy 0
Final tournament standings were:
SPORT DIVISION
1 – Italy One
2 – Israel Sabras
3 – Joudrs Orange
4 – GB Cubs
FUTURE DIVISION
1 – Seleccion Navarra
2 – Joudrs Navy
3 – Italy Two
4 – Princ Zagreb