By Ian Tomlin
Stenlose, Denmark: July 10 – The GB Junior (Under-19) Men's Fastpitch Team is still seeking a win after three games played at the European Men's Junior Championships in Stenlose, Denmark. But after a heavy loss to the defending champion Czech Republic on Monday 8 July, the performances on Tuesday against Israel and Croatia showed that a young and inexperienced team is learning and improving.
GB v Israel
GB's second game of the tournament on 9 July was played in intense heat, which caused problems for both teams as the game lasted over two-and-a-half hours. With pitchers on both teams struggling to throw strikes, the game was dominated by walks and errors.
Nightmare first
Great Britain scored twice in the first inning. Walks to Callum Church and Damon Brown were followed by a crisp hit from team captain Carl Sharpe, driving both runners home.
But the lead was quickly erased in the bottom half of the inning.
Israel opened by quickly loading the bases on two walks and a base hit. Two errors and five walks followed, then another error, a walk and two-base hit. When the nightmare was over, Israel had scored 12 runs.
However, the GB Team was not discouraged, and Matt Tomlin and Amit Aswani scored in the second inning to decrease the deficit by two.
Israel scored two in their half of the second inning to lead 14-4, but two good catches by outfielder Iuean Gale helped close the inning without further damage.
GB explosion
In the third inning, the GB offense stepped up a gear, batting through the order to score an impressive 10 runs to tie the game at 14-14.
Hits by Jack Broddle, Sam Grafton, Ben Easdown and Carl Sharpe helped the team get back in the game and both the players and the travelling support were hoping that the team to build on this comeback.
Unfortunately, Israel got back into their stride, scoring six more runs. Again, several walked batters contributed to the Israeli cause.
In the fourth inning, GB failed to add to their score and Israel scored a further four runs to close the game on the mercy rule, 24-14.
GB v Croatia
The GB Team is winning many friends off and on the field with their approach to the European Junior Men's Championships, and their spirit was intact as they went into Game 3 of the competition with great enthusiasm.
They faced a huge task against a strong Croatian team, but put up a good show and in all bar one inning they matched the opposition with some good defensive work.
Stranded runners
In the first inning, Matt Tomlin and Jack Broddle singled and George Blaskett walked to loaded the bases with one out. Unfortunately, the team could not capitalise on the position and a strikeout closed the inning.
GB pitcher George Blaskett started nervously and walked the first three batters, A hit to centre field scored the first Croatian run but a quick throw back to the infield trapped runners and a rundown resulted in the first out.
George Blaskett then found his target and although a further two runs were conceded he struck out two batters to close the inning.
GB again put batters on base in the second inning on a single by Damon Brown and a walk to Ieuan Gale. A sacrifice bunt from Matt Tomlin moved the runners to second and third and Carl Sharpe singled to centre field to bring in GB's first run.
End of the line
However, the second at-bat by the Croatian team settled the game.
Once again, pitching was an issue, with walks being given far too regularly. Although the Croatians scored a massive 12 runs in the inning, Carl Sharpe was eventually bought on to ensure the Croatian batters at least got to hit the ball, giving the GB Team the opportunity to get some outs.
Neither team scored in the third inning. In the fourth, with GB needing six runs to avoid the mercy rule, a single by Ieuan Gale was followed by three walks to get the team get their second run of the game.
But GB couldn't make any more out of the situation and the game finished Croatia 15, GB 2.
Results
Scores over the first two days of play in the five-team competition were as follows:
Monday
Croatia 17, Israel 7
Czech Republic 16, GB 1
Denmark 7, Croatia 6
Tuesday
Israel 24, GB 14
Czech Republic 18, Croatia 0
Denmark 21, Israel 3
Croatia 15, GB 2
Czech Republic 15, Denmark 4
The double round-robin will continue through Friday morning, after which the top four teams will go to a Page Playoff.