Havlickuv Brod, Czech Republic -- The GB Men's Fastpitch Team suffered an extra-inning loss to the Netherlands yesterday at the European Championships in a game full of twists and emotion, and have almost certainly blown their chance of automatic qualification for next year's World Championships during the round-robin phase of this tournament.
Unless, unthinkably, they trip up against Israel this afternoon, GB will probably finish fourth after the group stage and will need to beat either the Netherlands or Denmark in the first game of the Page Playoffs to ensure they can finish no lower than third and qualify to play in their fourth straight World Championship tournament in Saskatoon, Canada next summer.
In short, by losing very tough games against both the Danes (5-4) and the Dutch (8-4, in eight innings), GB has made the road to the World Championships a lot harder than the players and Coach Norman Ames would have hoped. The GB team talked about possibly winning the tournament coming in, but now a winner-take-all game on Friday afternoon against the Danes or the Dutch to guarantee at least third place is going to be a very tense affair.
The game
Kyle Linton, coming off his no-hitter the day before, started for Team GB. He promptly struck out the first two Dutch batters but walked the third. The next batter singled to right field, and when the ball was bobbled, the runner on first came all the way around to score. The Dutch managed one more hit and scored another run to lead 2-0 after the top of the first inning.
Kyle then settled down and shut out the Dutch over the next three innings, including striking out the side in the second. Jefferey Visser, pitching for the Dutch, kept Great Britain hitless over the first three innings. But in the bottom of the fourth the GB bats exploded for four runs and the lead.
GB loaded the bases with no outs, but after the next two batters -- Morgan Ottridge and Robbie Robison -- got out, it looked like the Dutch might get out of trouble. However, Ryan Martin had other ideas as he belted a triple to the outfield fence to score all three runners, and Ryan then scored on a single by Kenny Pregnell.
James Darby came on in the sixth inning for GB to to close out the game, but got into trouble by walking the first batter he faced. A single and eventually a wild pitch allowed the Dutch to tie the game at 4-4.
Team GB had a golden chance to win the game in the bottom of the seventh inning when Kevin Stockford hit a one-out triple, but with the infield in, Darren Newson lined out to shortstop and Luke Peters grounded out to third base.
"We had a chance to win it in the seventh inning and didn't," said GB Coach Norman Ames. "I think the other team had a lot of luck, which we didn´t have either today or yesterday against Denmark. Maybe next time we win."
It was on to a tie breaker situation in extra innings, with each team starting their at-bat in the eighth inning with a runner on second base. The Dutch runner ended up scoring on a wild pitch with two outs, and then the Dutch managed a few more hits and ended up taking an 8-4 lead, including one run scoring on a controversial play at the third base.
GB was unable to answer in the bottom of the inning, and the Netherlands had a crucial 8-4 win.
Kyle Linton ended up with 10 strikeouts in his five innings of work, giving up two runs on four hits and one error. Offensively, GB managed only three hits, by Ryan Martin, Kenny Pregnell and Kevin Stockford. Even that would have been enough if GB had taken their chance in the bottom of the seventh inning. But now, it will be an uphill battle for the GB Men.
Results
Full results after the first three days of the European Championships are:
MONDAY
Denmark 5, Israel 3
Czech Republic 17, Croatia 0
Denmark 9, Belgium 0
GB 8, Croatia 3
Netherlands 13, Israel 1
Czech Republic 10, Belgium 0
TUESDAY
Netherlands 16, Croatia 2
Czech Republic 22, Israel 1
GB 5, Belgium 0
Israel 3, Croatia 2
Denmark 5, GB 4
Czech Republic 10, Netherlands 0
WEDNESDAY
Belgium 7, Croatia 5
Netherlands 8, GB 4
Belgium 6, Israel 4
Czech Republic 9, Denmark 5
Standings
Round-robin standings after three days of play are:
Czech Republic (5-0)
Denmark (3-1)
Netherlands (3-1)
Great Britain (2-2)
Belgium (2-3)
Israel (1-4)
Croatia (0-5)