By Dr Alice Hunter
Wednesday 26 July – After a win over Sweden on Tuesday morning gave the GB Men’s Team a positive start to the second day of the European Men’s Championship in Horsholm, Denmark, securing them a top eight place, the team returned in the evening for a second round game against Denmark.
Unfortunately, though the GB Team managed to keep a powerful Danish line-up in check for much of the game, Denmark scored heavily in the first and last innings of the contest en route to a 13-1 win.
Having lost to a Danish team that is generally regarded as the second-best men’s fastpitch team in Europe, GB will need to find at least one victory in games against Israel at 11.15 am and the Netherlands at 3.45 pm local time on Wednesday to continue to progress in the tournament.
But two wins would be even better, since results against other teams that progress to the next stage will be carried over.
First inning
With a loud rendition of the British national anthem from the players, staff, and supporters alike, the GB Men took to the field as the home team against a strong Danish side.
Damon Brown returned to circle for GB and began the inning well, generating two ground outs from the first two Danish batters, both hit to Darren Meintjes at third base. However, nerves began to show in defense after this promising start.
A walk, a single and an error got the Danes going and more infield hits followed that might have been outs before Damon closed out the inning by striking out Oscar Anderson. While Damon only gave up one earned run, the score sat at 5-0 to Denmark as Great Britain came in to bat against Danish pitcher Martin Holmberg, who quickly set down the top three batters.
Second inning
Damon Brown continued to pitch well in the top of the second inning, dismissing all three Danish batters on called third strikes, and GB came to bat looking to get back in the game.
Darren Meintjes led off and reached on an error by the Danish shortstop, giving Great Britain their first baserunner. Jack Scholes came in as a pinch runner for Darren, promptly took second base on a wild pitch, and when Tom Russell flew out to right field, Jack advanced to third. Josh Peat then walked and GB pulled off a double steal, with Josh successfully stealing second and Jack coming home for Great Britain’s first run of the game.
Damon Brown followed by drawing another walk and went to second on a passed ball, but GB was unable to capitalise further and the inning ended with the score at 5-1 to Denmark.
Calm before the storm
There wasn’t a lot of offense over the next three innings from either team.
In GB’s third inning, Todd Kriehn walked but this was followed by a double play. In the GB fourth inning, Darren Meintjes led off with a double to left field, but was stranded on second base. And in the GB fifth inning, Tom Priscott was hit by a pitch, but another double play followed.
Denmark fared a little better, adding a run in the top of the fourth inning on an infield single, a sacrifice bunt and a single to left field by Tobias Holmelund, and another in the top of the fifth on a hit-by-pitch, a sacrifice bunt, a passed ball and an infield hit by Marc Nihoj.
Sixth inning
Darren Tighe entered the game as a pitching change for Great Britain in the top of the sixth inning, and the Danes began to ramp up their intensity in the batter’s box.
The inning began with a triple down the right field line from Valdemar Terkelsen and a single by Tobias Holmelund, but things were looking up for GB when Anders Svane hit into a 5-4-3 double play, expertly fielded by Carl Sharpe at third.
But four walks, two hit batters and a single followed and the Danish lead was now 13-1.
Trent Nash walked and Karl Sharpe singled in the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Great British comeback wasn’t to be in this game and it ended on the mercy rule. The final score wasn’t reflective of the heart and determination shown by all the GB players throughout the game.
Afterwards, Darren Meintjes said, “The score didn’t really reflect the game we played, as a couple of errors cost us a few runs. But we kept our heads up and we’ll rebuild in the next game against Israel.”
Scores and standings
The Championship playoff round for the top eight teams that came through the opening round-robin at the European Men’s Championship got under way on Tuesday afternoon.
The eight teams were divided into two groups: Group E with Czechia, France, Belgium and Croatia and Group F with Denmark, Great Britain, Israel and the Netherlands.
Scores on Tuesday afternoon were:
GROUP E
Belgium 6, France 5
Czechia 15, Croatia 0
GROUP F
Netherlands 2, Israel 0
Denmark 13, Great Britain 1
All the teams in Groups E and F will play twice on Wednesday to complete their round-robins, and the top three teams from each group will go forward to a final six-team round-robin, Group X, to be played on Thursday and Friday. This group will determine the teams to contest the bronze and gold medal games on Saturday.
