By Frank Juzenas
Brampton, Ontario, Canada: July 7 – An extra-inning thriller eliminated Great Britain from the 10th Junior Women's World Championships on Saturday night 6 July in Canada. In an exciting contest, the GB team fell 7-6 to Mexico in eight innings in a consolation round semi-final to determine who would face the Czech Republic in Sunday's final.
Earlier that day, GB had beaten Singapore 7-1, and they will come home from Canada with their heads held high after some excellent performances at the pinnacle tournament of Under-19 world softball. They will also come back as the highest-ranked European team in the tournament standings.
Head Coach Rachael Watkeys said, “The team got to see softball being played at the highest level. For the British-based players in particular this will be a huge confidence-boost." she said.
GB v Singapore
The GB Team was forced to play two games on Saturday after heavy rain on Friday forced most of the consolation round to be wiped out. When the rain finally stopped, officials doubled up on games in the Championship round, moving the consolation contests to Saturday.
When they finally did get to play their first consolation match, Great Britain did not have much trouble against a young team from Singapore, winning 7-1 in a contest, played under a blazing mid-day sun.
Many of the older Singapore players were absent from the tournament because of school commitments so a younger team was sent to Canada. Their inexperience was telling as the team went 1-6 during the preliminary round, with only a victory over Botswana.
Rachael Watkeys was happy with the team's performance later in the game against Singapore as the bats got going and the players were more aggressive on the bases after a slow start against an opponent whom GB had beaten handily in an exhibition game earlier in the week. The contest was just 3-0 after four innings, but GB got more productive with a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth.
Lauren Evans had the hot bat for GB, as she went two-for-two with a pair of doubles, and drove in two runs, one in the first inning and another in the third with a smash that went off the left-field wall.
She said the team benefited from getting the day off on Friday. "We got to rest and see some other games," Lauren said.
While Rachael Watkeys would normally prefer to play every day, she agreed that her team may have benefited from the day off.
"We had some tired bodies," Rachael said.
GB finished with 11 hits.
Amanda Marshall returned after suffering an injury on Tuesday when she was hit by a ball in the face and was taken to hospital for tests. She went behind the plate and had a pair of hits, driving in two runs.
Tahli Moore was three-for-three with two stolen bases. Keeli Waugh had two hits, including a double and scored a run and Amy Wells and Nicole Ratel also had hits. Emma Bridge drove in a run with a sacrifice.
Emma pitched the full seven innings, yielding just four hits with three strikeouts, allowing the only run in the sixth inning.
The win set up the consolation semi-final later on Saturday against Mexico.
GB v Mexico
GB was down two key players for the game as Nicole Ratel and Keeli Waugh had left following Saturday morning's win to join the GB Women's Team at the European Championships in Prague.
Despite the loss of two big bats, the team rallied after falling behind 5-2, tying the game with three runs in the sixth inning which sent the contest to the international tie-breaker.
Lauren Evans was the key offensively for GB as she had two hits, including an inside-the park home run in the first inning. She drove in another run during the sixth inning and Chloe Wigington also smacked a single which led to a run in the sixth.
Mexico had scored four times in the third inning. But there was controversy and a lengthy discussion involving the GB coaches and the umpires. The coaches said a Mexican base runner should have been out after she ran beyond first base and was tagged.
Rachael Watkeys said later said she is used to playing the "safety base rule” and once you are off base you can be tagged, but apparently that rule is not used in North America and she planned to speak to officials to get clarification.
Emma Bridge pitched the entire game and took the loss.
Elsewhere....
With its victory, Mexico advanced to meet the Czech Republic in the consolation final today (7 July). The Czechs did not win any games during the round-robin, including a loss to Great Britain,
but they earned a chance to play on Sunday with a 1-0 victory over the Netherlands and a forfeit victory over Korea.
In the Championship section, the United States has breezed through the tournament and the Americans will play in the gold medal contest today after a 4-0 victory over the previously-unbeaten Japan on Saturday.
Australia kept its hopes of winning gold alive by stopping New Zealand 9-1 on Saturday evening. Great Britain had also beaten the Kiwis during the tournament.
Australia and Japan will meet on Sunday morning with the winner facing the Americans on Sunday afternoon.
The host Canadians were eliminated from the tournament by losing 3-0 to Australia on Saturday morning. It was a disappointing tournament for the hosts who also lost to the US and New Zealand during section play. New Zealand knocked Puerto Rico out with a 5-4 playoff win on Saturday.