By Dr Alice Hunter
Tuesday 25 July – The GB Men’s Fastpitch Team scored their first win at the European Men’s Championship on Tuesday morning, and it was an important one. GB’s 8-1 five-inning mercy rule victory over Sweden ensured them a place in the Championship playoff rounds.
The GB Team is now into a second round-robin stage involving the top eight teams, in a group where they will play Denmark, Israel and the Netherlands. A second group will consist of Czechia, France, Croatia, and Belgium.
Games in these groups will take place over Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, and three teams from each of the groups will go forward to a final round-robin on Thursday and Friday that will determine the teams that play in the bronze and gold medal games on Saturday.
Great start
After a positive start yesterday against Czechia, Great Britain went into Game Two with heads held high, looking to record their first win of the European Championship in Denmark. Having already beaten Sweden several times since post-Covid return to play, it was a great opportunity for the team to secure a playoff place.
Great Britain took to the field in the top of the first inning and Matt Eder made his pitching debut for the Senior National Team. After the first batter for Sweden, Taguaripano Alvin, singled up the middle, Matt took control and struck out the next batter. The second out came when Alvin was caught stealing second base, thanks to an excellent throw from catcher Tom Russell to shortstop Josh Peat. With the bases cleared, the next batter hit a grounder to Darren Meintjes at third, who made the throw to first to retire the side.
Now it was Great Britain’s turn to bat, and yesterday’s shaky offensive start against Czechia was quickly forgotten. Leadoff batter Amit Aswani took a walk, Todd Kriehn had a bunt base hit, and with one out, Darren Meintjes singled to load the bases for Ieuan Gale, who successfully drove in Great Britain’s first run of the tournament after reaching on a fielder’s choice. With the bats now firing, George Young, Tom Russell and Matt Tomlin all had RBIs as the inning ended with the score at 5-0 to Great Britain.
More runs
Neither team scored in the second inning, but both teams scored in the third.
In the top of the third, Mike Noreen led off with a single for Sweden and went to second on a wild pitch, but things seemed under control when Daniel Andre popped out to pitcher Matt Eder and Matt struck out Zoltan Toth for the second out of the inning. Sweden then scored their first run of the game on a single to centre field from Taguaripano Alvin, but showing great composure, Great Britain secured the third out by catching Alvin in a rundown, Ieuan Gale tagging him out as he dove back to first base.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Great Britain offense returned to form, with GB batters continuing to get on base, where they capitalised on Swedish defensive errors.
Josh Peat laid down a sacrifice bunt to put two runners in scoring position and George Young then scored on a wild pitch. When Amit Aswani reached on an error, Tom Russell came home as well. The third inning ended with a harsh third strike called on Todd Kriehn, but Great Britain had pushed their lead to six runs with the score at 7-1.
Winning run
The one run scored in the third inning was all that Sweden was to get.
Though the Swedes put two runners on base in the top of the fourth, Matt Eder got Swedish pitcher Kalle Hjelm, who had come in to relieve starter Jonny Edgren in the first inning, to pop out to Todd Kriehn, who tracked the ball and caught it in foul territory behind first base.
In the top of the fifth inning, Matt Eder continued his strong performance in the circle by retiring the Swedes in order on a pop fly to shortstop and two swinging strikeouts. It was time for the Great Britain offense to step up once again to finish the game here, as the players knew that one run in the bottom of the inning would bring the mercy rule into play.
Tom Russell led off for Great Britain in the bottom of the fifth and drove a solid single to centre field for his second hit of the game. Tom then took second on a wild pitch and third on a fielder’s choice with Josh Peat at the plate, and the stage was set for Josh to end the game.
That was accomplished with a single to centre field.
The GB Men had secured their first win and a place in the top-eight playoffs with a solid performance and a winning score of 8-1.
After the game, catcher Tom Russell said, “We had a great game this morning – a strong team performance with hits spread amongst the team and solid pitching from Matt Eder. We’ve done the first part of what we came here to do and qualified for the top eight. Now it’s on to the next few games to make our way into the top six!”
Great Britain will start their campaign for a top six spot in a game against Denmark on Tuesday evening at 6:30 pm local time.
Scores and standings
Play in the initial round-robin groups in the European Men’s Championship was completed on Tuesday morning, with the top two teams from each of four groups going forward to Championship playoffs and the bottom teams in each group to placing playoffs.
Here are the round-robin scores from today and the final first round-robin standings:
GROUP A
Great Britain 8, Sweden 1
Czechia (2-0)
Great Britain (1-1)
Sweden (0-2)
GROUP B
Belgium 5, Slovakia 0
Denmark (2-0)
Belgium (1-1)
Slovakia (0-2)
GROUP C
Israel 9, Germany 3
Israel (2-0)
Croatia (1-1)
Germany (0-2)
GROUP D
Netherlands 11, Spain 0
France (2-0)
Netherlands (1-1)
Spain (0-2)
