By Dr Alice Hunter
Thursday 27 July – The GB Men’s Fastpitch Team finished the first playoff round-robin at the European Men’s Championship in Denmark on Wednesday without a win, and though the team has played well and fought bravely, the result is that they have been eliminated from medal contention.
Yesterday, the GB Men lost 10-3 to Israel and 12-2 to the Netherlands, and the result is that GB’s remaining game in the tournament will be a seventh place playoff against France at 4.00 pm local time on Friday.
Here is how yesterday’s games went.
GB vs Israel
It was Day Three of European Men’s Championship in Denmark and Great Britain were set to face Israel in their second game of the second stage of the competition. After a disappointing loss against Denmark on Tuesday night, the players wanted to return to winning ways to progress into the top six stage of the competition. To do this, they would need at least one win from their two games on Wednesday.
The players began their warm-up with dark clouds overhead, and it wasn’t long before a short rain delay interrupted proceedings. However, when the GB players finally returned to the field for their final warm-up reps, the weather hadn’t dampened their spirits and they were ready to begin their fourth game of the tournament.
Unfortunately, the first inning didn’t start the way GB had intended, and despite some good contact the top of the line-up didn’t manage to make it on base. So the gloves came out and GB went back to defense.
Matt Eder started in the circle for GB and after the first batter walked, the next batter flew out to Matt Tomlin, who took a great catch in centre field. However, the Israelis then put their foot on the gas and the next few batters all helped their run count tick over until the first inning ended with Israel ahead by a score of 3-0.
Building back
From that point, the GB Men mounted a spirited attempt to get back in the game, scoring a run per inning in the second, third and fourth, with notable at-bats coming from Darren Meintjes, Damon Brown, Matt Tomlin, and Tom Russell.
In the second inning, Darren Meintjes led off with a triple to right field and scored on a single by Damon Brown.
In the third inning Matt Tomlin took a walk and made it home when Tom Russell hit a stand-up triple to left centre field. And in the fourth inning, not to be out-done, Darren Meintjes led off with a home run over the fence in centre field.
The Israelis had scored two runs themselves in the bottom of the second inning, but Darren’s home run in the top of the fourth cut Israel’s lead to 5-3. The GB Men were definitely back in the game.
However, Israel scored two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the score to 7-3.
Damon Brown had come in to relieve Matt Eder and get the final two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, and neither team managed to score in the fifth. So the score stayed at 7-3 and GB were still in with a chance.
Last inning
Despite a walk to Trent Nash to lead off the top of the sixth inning, GB batters were unable to cause more damage against Israeli pitcher Leon Kfir, in part because they were struggling with some questionable strike calls throughout the game.
When GB returned to defense in the bottom of the sixth, the Israelis had more success, and eventually a solid hit up the third base line from Gil Alon brought in the third run of the inning, bringing the score to 10-3 and a mercy rule win for Israel.
This was another game where the final score wasn’t reflective of the standard of play shown by the GB Team.
GB vs Netherlands
GB players only had a brief break after finishing the game with Israel and just over an hour later were back on the warm-up field and gearing up for the final group game against the Netherlands.
At this stage the team knew, based on other results within their group, that they wouldn’t be able to make the top six, but they still displayed their normal intensity as they built up to the start of the game. The supporters’ group -- family and friends who had travelled over to back the team -- was still loudly cheering them on.
Tough start
It was another tough start for the GB offense in the top of the first inning, and it appeared yet again that the softball gods were not on our side, with umpires’ calls and lucky bounces all landing in favour of the Dutch.
However, the GB defense only conceded three runs in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run home run by Reangelo Castillo, a walk and a double by Myron Juaquin.
There was still all to play for, and in the top of the second inning, leadoff walks to Trent Nash and Darren Tighe put runners on base. But it simply wasn’t GB’s day, as the next batter hit into a well-fielded double play.
The Netherlands continued to show their power in the bottom of the second inning, and after loading the bases with only one down, Eldrick Dijkhoff hit a grand-slam over the fence in left field to stretch the Dutch lead to 7-0.
Matt Eder took over the pitching from starter Damon Brown and got the final two outs to end the inning, including a good play on a grounder by Darren Meintjes and a strikeout of Myron Juaquin.
GB failed to score in the top of the third inning, but the Dutch continued to show strong form with their bats. In the bottom of the third, a sacrifice fly taken by Tom Russell brought in the first run for the Netherlands, and later in the inning, with the bases loaded, a solid hit up the middle by Eldrick Dijkhoff allowed the Dutch to score two further runs.
GB rally
In the top of the fourth inning, it looked like things were beginning to go GB’s way, with three walks putting Todd Kriehn, Trent Nash and Darren Meintjes on base. Josh Peat then drove a hard-hit ball at the Dutch shortstop, who misplayed it, allowing two runs to come home.
However, the inning shortly ended afterwards on a ground out, leaving two GB runners stranded.
When the Dutch returned to bat, their offense continued, and a double, an RBI groundout and a single brought in two runs and took the score to 12-2, at which point the game ended on the mercy rule.
After the game, George Young said, “Unfortunately, it didn’t go the way we wanted it to go against the Netherlands. We played really well but it was just one of those games where they hit really well and we didn’t get the bats going in time. We’ll train hard tomorrow, ready to come back and hopefully finish with a win against the French on Friday.”
Training
On Thursday, despite having no games to play, the GB Team didn’t rest, but, as George Young had said, put in a three-hour training session to help absorb everything they’d learned from the week’s games, including batting practice, tee work and live pitching to end the session.
Scores and standings
The top eight teams in the European Men’s Championship completed the initial playoff round-robin on Wednesday, with each team playing twice. Scores were:
GROUP E
Croatia 10, France 5
Czechia 8, Belgium 1
Belgium 4, Croatia 1
Czechia 10, France 0
GROUP F
Denmark 10, Netherlands 1
Israel 10, Great Britain 3
Netherlands 12, Great Britain 2
Denmark 12, Israel 0
Final standings for these groups were:
GROUP E
Czechia (3-0)
Belgium (2-1)
Croatia (1-2)
France (0-3)
GROUP F
Denmark (3-0)
Netherlands (2-1)
Israel (1-2)
Great Britain (0-3)
The first three teams in each of these groups have advanced to the final Championship round-robin, Group X, which will be played over Thursday and Friday and will determine which teams will play in the bronze and gold medal games on Saturday.
The bottom teams from Groups E and F, France and Great Britain, will play each other at 4.00 pm local time on Friday to determine seventh place.
