By Bob Fromer
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Sant Boi, Spain: 4 August – Until tonight, a GB team had never beaten Italy in an official ESF or ISF competition. But that’s now history after the GB Under-19 Women recorded their seventh straight win at the Europe Junior Championships with a dominant 7-1 triumph over the Azzuri.
The win guarantees the GB team at least a bronze medal -- though they will of course be aiming higher. It also guarantees them a place in the 1 v 2 Page Playoff game on Friday evening, against the winner of the clash between Italy and the Czech Republic earlier in the day. This British team has now beaten every other team in this tournament that matters, and has a chance to be the most successful national team in British softball history.
After the game, and amid general GB jubilation, Head Coach Amanda Murphy said, “This is an amazing team and a fantastic result. I couldn’t be more proud of their performance! And you have to give credit to the wonderful support we’re getting from the stands. It’s been a fantastic day!”
That support included one of the loudest renditions of God Save the Queen ever heard at a European softball tournament, and there was continual noise from both the stands and the dugout as the GB Team overcame an early Italian lead and ultimately blew them away.
Tonight’s win, conjured from a dominant pitching performance by Georgina Corrick and an offense that chipped away until Italy cracked, is something to be savoured – but there is still a lot of work to do.
On Friday morning, GB will complete the third round of the tournament with a game against Belgium -- though the result won’t matter and can’t affect GB’s position. Then the Page Playoff will start on Friday evening, and a win in the 1 v 2 game will send Great Britain straight to the Grand Final at 5.30 pm local time on Saturday.
A loss in the 1 v 2 game will mean that GB will have to play and win early Saturday afternoon against either the Italians or the Czechs to get to the Grand Final the hard way.
Games on both Friday and Saturday will be webstreamed live by Playo.tv and will be available for free. The details are below.
Team effort
The win over Italy was built on a wonderful pitching performance by Georgina Corrick, who gave up just three hits and one walk and struck out 15, including six in a row early in the contest and, in imperious fashion, the final three batters of the game.
Georgina also drove in four of GB’s seven runs with a fifth-inning triple and a sixth-inning single, both hit with ferocious power.
But the win was a full team effort. The GB defense played an errorless game (the Italians committed one), and after taking a few innings to get the measure of Italian starter Sara Riboldi, GB eventually came up with eight hits against Riboldi and seventh-inning reliever Laura Bigatton, scoring three runs in a two-out rally in the bottom of the fifth inning and adding four massive runs in the bottom of the sixth that silenced the Italian dugout and made the game secure.
Confidence has been growing in this GB Team all week after a slightly shaky start in the pre-tournament scrimmage games, and Wednesday night’s hard-fought win over the Czech Republic was a catalyst for the win tonight.
This team is not only winning, but winning with some style, and the difference between this team and most GB teams in the past, at either Senior or Under-19 level, is that the 2016 GB Junior Women can hit from the top of the line-up through the bottom, and are producing the offense to back up Georgina Corrick’s pitching.
Pitchers’ duel
As expected, the game against Italy began as a pitcher’s duel, and the first three innings were scoreless. Italy had no hits over that span, and GB had only a third-inning single to right field by Alana Snow.
But Italy made the first breakthrough in the top of the fourth inning, and it came in characteristic fashion. With one out, Georgina Corrick gave up her only walk of the game to Susannah Soldi, and the Italians took advantage. Soldi stole second base, with GB second base player Laura Hirai making a fantastic diving catch to make sure the throw didn’t go into centre field. But then Giorgia Migliorini’s two-out single to left field brought Soldi home.
GB attacks
That 1-0 lead for the Italians lasted until the bottom of the fifth inning. And nothing much seemed on the cards after Olivia Lee bounced out to third and Casey Moritz to shortstop, both on the first pitch they saw.
Then Hannah Burge beat out a chopper to shortstop, and after a long and high-pressure at-bat, Alana Snow lined a soft single into left field. That brought Georgina Corrick to the plate, who had been fooled by changes in speed from Sara Riboldi in both of her first two at-bats.
This time, Georgina attacked the first pitch and smashed a ground ball with such power to the right of second base that it went all the way to the fence, driving in Hannah and Alana and giving GB the lead. The next batter, Megan Parno, drove a hard ground ball past Italian third base player Giorgia Migliorini, and GB was suddenly 3-1 up.
The top of the Italian line-up went down in order in the top of the sixth inning on a bunt handled crisply by Georgina Corrick and Laura Hirai covering first and two strikeouts, and then the GB offense put the game to bed.
The inning began when Amie Hutchison hit a ball that was deflected from the pitcher to the shortstop. The throw to first was in time, but in stretching for it, Susannah Soldi pulled her foot off the base. Amie advanced to second on an infield out, and when Sara Roboldi walked Olivia Lee on a 3-2 count, that was the end of her evening and the hard-throwing Laura Bigatton replaced her.
And that’s when GB attacked and the Italian defense began to chase shadows. Casey Moritz pushed a single to right field to load the bases and an infield single by Hannah Burge scored Amie Hutchison. Alana Snow then hit a ground ball and the Italians went for the out at the plate but failed to get it as Olivia Lee slid in and dislodged the ball.
That brought Georgina Corrick to the plate and she smashed a single up the middle to drive in two more runs.
There was still only one out, and a hit by either Megan Parno or Chelsea D’Avilar would have ended the game on the mercy rule. But Megan bounced to third and Chelsea flied out to centre field.
There was a final gesture of defiance from Italy in the top of the seventh inning when the lead-off hitter, Giorgia Migliorini, drove a single past third base.
Georgina Corrick, whose demeanour in the circle rarely changes, simply took a deep breath and struck out Mariel Bertossi, Elisa Princic and pinch-hitter Chiara Mengoli, all swinging, on a total of 11 pitches.
Making history
The Italians have been one of the two dominant teams in Europe – the Netherlands are the other – ever since the sport took hold here, and they are the current European champions at senior level and were runner-up to the Czech Republic and their ace pitcher Veronika Petkova at the 2014 European Junior Championships.
GB has had some close games with Italy in the past at senior level, notably a tough 3-1 loss at the European Championships in 2007, and an even tougher 1-0 eight-inning defeat at the European Championships in 2009. But the only GB win came in an invitational tournament in Sardinia in 2006, and there have been some heavy defeats, and that’s why tonight’s win was such a landmark.
The GB Under-19s will definitely play Italy again before this competition is over, possibly twice, and either team could win. But for now, with two days of this tournament still to go, the GB Team has put down a significant marker.
Results
The third round of this tournament involves six teams playing each other (but with played games from Round Two counted) to determine which four teams will go to the Page Playoff on Friday evening and Saturday, and in which order.
Results of Round Three games played today are:
Czech Republic 3, Belgium 0
Italy 8, Germany 1 (5 inns)
GB 8, Russia 4
Germany 6, Belgium 0
GB 7, Italy 1
Czech Republic 3, Russia 2
The current standings for the Round Three teams, with all six teams back in action on Friday morning, are:
GB (4-0)
Italy (3-1)
Czech Republic (3-1)
Germany (1-3)
Belgium (1-3)
Russia (0-4)
Webstreaming
Games from the final two days of the European Junior Championships will be webstreamed live and for free by the European Softball Federation’s broadcast partner Playo.tv.
All the live-streamed games will be accessible through the ESF website, or here. For specific games, click the following links:
Friday
10:00 – Russia v Germany: http://www.playo.tv/video/Zapas-c35-2011.aspx.
12:30 – Italy v Czech Republic: http://www.playo.tv/video/Zapas-c37-2309.aspx.
15:00 – Lithuania v Spain (7th place game): http://www.playo.tv/video/Zapas-o-7misto-2310.aspx.
18:00 – 3 v 4 Page Playoff Game: http://www.playo.tv/video/Zapas-c41-2311.aspx.
20:30 – 1 v 2 Page Playoff Game (GB v Italy or Czech Republic): http://www.playo.tv/video/Zapas-c42-2312.aspx.
Saturday
10:00 -- 11th place game: http://www.playo.tv/video/Zapas-o-11misto-2012.aspx.
12:30 -- Bronze Medal game): http://www.playo.tv/video/Finale-2313.aspx.
15:00 -- 9th place game: http://www.playo.tv/video/Zapas-o-9misto-2314.aspx.
17:30 – Grand Final (Gold Medal game): http://www.playo.tv/video/Velke-finale-2315.aspx.
All times are local, one hour ahead of the UK.
Photos by John Corrick