By Steve Fullan
Pardubice, Czech Republic -- The GB Men started off their European Championship campaign with an 8-3 win over Croatia on Monday, as James Darby threw 15 strikeouts – but it wasn't quite as straightforward as those numbers might suggest.
Offensively, the team was led by Darryl Hermann (2-for-2 with two RBIs), Kevin Stockford (2-for-2) and Kenny Pregnell (2-for-2 with two triples), while Hrvoje Jerbic had two RBIs for Croatia.
Fast start
Great Britain scored five times in the first inning, as Josh Peat led off the bottom of the first with a double down the right-field line, advanced to third base on an error and scored on a single by Neil Davies. Kevin Stockford followed up with another single and James Darby was walked to load the bases with no one out.
Steve Rice then hit a hard shot off the first baseman’s glove and beat out the play at first for an infield single that scored a run, and Darryl Hermann followed up with a single to score two more. By the end of the inning, GB had amassed a quick 5-0 lead.
Croatian comeback
Nothing much happened in the second or third innings as James Darby continued to mow down the Croatian batters while the GB offense went flat.
However, things got more interesting in the top of the fourth inning when Gareth Jooste replaced James Darby and hit his first batter. A wild pitch and a walk was followed by consecutive singles, and suddenly the GB lead had been cut to 5-3.
Gareth eventually settled down and got out of the jam, but after a scoreless bottom of the fourth for GB, nerves started to creep in when Gareth gave up a lead-off hit in the top of he fifth. So Coach Norman Ames brought James Darby back to pitch and he set down the Croatians without further scoring.
More offense
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Kenny Pregnell led off for GB with a triple, which would have been an inside-the-park home run if he hadn't tripped over himself hallway between first and second base. Then Luke Peters singled to score Kenny, Ryan Martin singled to score Luke, and the score was 7-3 to GB.
James Darby set the Croatian team down again in the top of the sixth, and it was up to GB finish the game off. However, they managed only one more run in the bottom of the sixth when Darrin Newson singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on the second of Kenny Pregnell’s triples.
Wrapping it up
In the end, GB won 8-3 but the game was closer in terms of the score and longer in terms of time than GB had expected.
"The game was a little longer than we anticipated – a little over two hours," said GB Head Coach Norman Ames, who was not the only person expecting a mercy rule game after the GB's five-run first inning.
"We tried to experiment a bit, and got another pitcher into the game,” Norman added. “But the main thing is we won!”
Today, GB will have a doubleheader in Havlickuv Brod, the tournament's main venue, when they take on Belgium at 15.00 local time and then former European Champions Denmark at 19.30.
