By Alice Hunter
Monday 24 July -- The GB Men’s Fastpitch Team took on the defending champions Czechia in their opening game at the 2023 
European Men’s Championship in Horsholm, Denmark, and though GB played well, the Czechs were too strong and won 8-0 in five innings.
Czech starter Jonas Hajný allowed only one hit and struck out 14 GB batters in pitching a complete five-inning game. Meanwhile, GB starter Damon Brown struck out six Czech batters in just three innings of work, but the Czechs managed to turn seven hits, three walks and two GB errors off Brown and reliever Darren Tighe into eight runs in total, and a final three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning brought up the mercy rule scoreline.
Nevertheless, this was a strong GB performance against one of the top six men’s fastpitch teams in the world. Here are the details of how the game proceeded.
First inning
After the GB Team gathered for some last motivational words from Tom Priscott, it was finally time to take the field, with any last-minute nerves turned to excitement: the GB Men were ready to perform on the European stage for the first time in five years.
Amit Aswani took to the batter’s box as the leadoff hitter and both the dugout and bleachers were behind him with loud cheers as he watched the first pitch come in for a ball.
The first three batters for GB all had great at-bats, taking their time to wait for their pitch, but unfortunately there were no hits, so it was time for the defense to take over.
Damon Brown took to the circle for GB, and produced a wry smile when the first pitch he threw sailed over the head of catcher Trent Nash. But Damon’s nerves then settled and he proceeded to strike out the first Czech batter.
With the first out ticked off, Damon also dismissed the next two Czech batters via swinging strikeouts, causing the dugout and bleachers to erupt again for such a great start to the game.
Second inning
In the second inning, GB continued to show promise in the batter’s box. Darren Meintjes led off with a solid line drive single to right field and eventually reached second base on a wild pitch, but was left on base as Jonas Hajný struck out the next three GB hitters.
The Czechs began to string some hits together in the bottom of the second inning. George Harris led off with a triple to right centre and Martin Magula singled up the middle to bring in the first run of the game. However, GB showed composure, with Damon Brown recording his fourth strikeout of the game and managing to hold the Czechs to only two runs scored.
Czechs pull ahead
Jonas Hajný, throwing well, struck out all three GB batters in the top of the third inning.
Damon Brown responded by striking out the Czech leadoff hitter in the bottom of the inning and looked set to get out of the inning after a walk was followed by a groundout. But with errors creeping into the GB defense, the Czechs scored their third and fourth runs of the game.
Jonas Hajný set GB down in order once again in the top of the fourth inning, and Darren Tighe took over the pitching for GB in the bottom of the inning.
Marek Volf greeted Darren with a leadoff home run, but after a walk, three outs quickly followed and the inning ended with the Czechs only 5-0 ahead.
There were three more GB strikeouts in the top of the fifth inning, and the team returned to defense mode. An excellent catch by Matt Tomlin in center field and another by Amit Aswani in right field brought the Czechs to two out with two men on. But Marek Volf hit his second home run of the game, a blast to deep centre field, to allow the Czechs to walk off with an 8-0 win.
Positive start
The game was a good start to Great Britain’s campaign, with other teams watching and commenting on a strong performance against #1-ranked Czechia, the GB Men having kept the score down throughout the game.
Afterwards, Damon Brown was positive. “Czechia are a top team,” he said, “and it was a tough game, but I think we played really well. It’s a good start for us and sets us up in a good position to perform tomorrow.”
Darren Meintjes added, “It was always going to be a difficult start against the number one team, but the boys showed great character and made some good plays. It was a rough day with the bats, but it can only get better and hopefully the bats get going against Sweden and we’ll keep going from there.”
Great Britain will face Sweden in their next and last group game on Tuesday at 9.00 am Danish time (GMT+2), knowing that they will need to win to get into the Championship playoffs that start on Tuesday afternoon.
But GB will have the comfort of having beaten Sweden in two friendly matches played in 2022 at Farnham Park and in a game played in Gothenburg earlier this year.
Scores and standings
Scores so far on Monday are:
Group A
Czechia 8, GB 0
Czechia 17, Sweden 0
Group B
Denmark 1, Belgium 0
Denmark 14, Slovakia 3
Group C
Croatia 4, Germany 1
Israel 9, Croatia 3
Group D
France 4, Spain 1
France 9, Netherlands 6
After the final round-robin games are played on Tuesday morning, the top two teams from each three-team group will advance to Championship playoffs.
Czechia has already booked a place from Group A, Denmark will advance from Group B and France is through from Group D. The rest is still to be determined.