By Bob Fromer
Plant City, Florida: 23 January – Three easy wins and one tough loss on a sunny but chilly first day of the ISF Slowpitch World Cup competition in Central Florida has left the players and coaches on the GB Slowpitch Team with a good idea of what they need to do to get to the final and win the gold medal.
What's clear after the 14 round-robin games that were played on Day 1 is that of the eight teams contesting this tournament from seven different countries, three are competitive and have a shot at winning the title, with a medal pretty much guaranteed. The other five teams, all of whom suffered mercy rule defeats at the hands of top three, will be left to fight it out for places.
The three competitive teams are the two American entries – USA Fort Walton Beach and USA Ink Daddyz, both from Florida, and both undefeated on Day 1 – and Great Britain, who lost only to USA Fort Walton Beach by 12-7 in the final game of the day, a game that was closer than the score might suggest.
Earlier, GB had beaten Canada by a score of 13-3 this morning, and then steamrollered France by 25-2 in four innings and Curacao by 30-5 in five innings this afternoon.
A GB team containing a number of international rookies and very few veterans of more than the last European Championship has gained in confidence throughout the day, and was completely in the game against the tournament favourites, Fort Walton Beach. But that game also served as a demonstration that little mistakes can cost you against tough opposition.
“I thought that overall we outplayed them,” Head Coach Steve Patterson told the team after the game was over. “They'll come back with more the next time we meet them – but so will we.”
But before GB got to their encounter with USA Fort Walton Beach, they ran up the runs against three easier opponents.
GB v Canada
This morning's opening-game 13-3 win against Canada has already been described on the BSF website. See: http://www.britishsoftball.org/news/view/gb-slowpitch-opens-world-cup-with-win-over-canada.
GB v France
Next up at 1.30 pm was France, who are not really a national team, but rather the club team from Brevannes near Paris that hosted the first-ever European Slowpitch Cup in 2007.
This game was over almost as soon as it began. Whereas GB had started slowly in the opening game against Canada, here they put up 14 runs in the top of the first inning on just five hits, five French errors and six walks issued by two French pitchers. It was the prelude to a 25-2 win.
Slowpitch can be a hopeless game if pitchers can't throw strikes, and neither French starter Thomas Malecot or his replacement Alexis Sardella was able to find the plate with any consistency in what was a nightmare opening frame for the French. The base hits in the inning to go with all the Gallic generosity came from Kirstie Leach, Claudine Snape, Ruth Macintosh, Adam Haywood and Chloe Llewellyn.
France replied with a pair of runs on three hits in the bottom of the first inning, but those were they only runs they scored in the four-inning game, as GB pitcher Brad Gilmour gave up only five hits.
GB added six runs in the second inning, four in the third and a final run in the fourth to roll up their mercy rule score on a total of 19 hits plus nine French errors. But at least the French didn't walk anyone else after the first inning.
Brad Gilmour had a perfect game at the plate with three hits and two walks, while GB newcomer Adam Haywood had three hits and a bunch of players – Kirstie Leach, Ian Kulka, Ed Watkinson, Ruth Macintosh and Chloe Llewellyn – each chipped in with two.
GB v Curacao
The next game, against Curacao, an island off the coast of Venezuela that has produced some top Major League Baseball players, was almost a mirror image of the game against France.
Once again, GB batted first, and once again they scored 14 runs in the top of the first inning, this time on eight hits, three Curacao errors and five walks. Walks will kill you – something that GB was to experience at first hand later in the day.
After four innings, the score was 21-5 in GB's favour, but that wasn't quite enough to trigger the mercy rule (20 after four) and there was just enough time left on the clock (no new inning after 75 minutes) to start another inning. GB promptly racked up nine more runs in the top of the unnecessary fifth inning to take the final score up to 30-5.
This time, GB had 22 hits to go with only four Curacao errors but a horrendous 10 walks.
Kirstie Leach had a single, a double and a ringing triple to lead the GB attack, while David Lee, Ian Kulka, Richie Browne and Areej Elmaazi also had three hits each and Claudine Snape drew three walks.
David Lee started for GB but struggled with control, walking three over the first two innings, and Brad Gilmour pitched the last three frames. But the two pitchers held Curacao to eight scattered hits.
GB v USA Fort Walton Beach
Once it became clear, early on in the day, that the tournament had three good teams and five others, the 6.00 pm clash between GB and USA Fort Walton Beach was eagerly awaited by both teams.
And there was a connection between the two teams in the shape of Fort Walton captain Cheryl Trapnell, who was sent by the American Amateur Softball Association to deliver slowpitch coaching clinics in Britain last summer, and who also played on the Scottish team The Clan that won the last ISF Slowpitch World Cup in 2005.
Although she twisted her ankle early in the game, Cheryl led Fort Walton from the front, with two hits and two exceptional plays in the field at first base.
Despite the 68 runs racked up by GB earlier in the day and the 55 runs scored by Fort Walton, most of the runs in this game, with good defense on both sides, were scored in ones and twos. After two innings, GB held their only lead of the contest at 3-2.
But the game was decided by a seven-run Fort Walton outburst in the bottom of the third inning on four consecutive hits and a crucial walk to clean-up hitter Skeeter Johnson yielded by GB starter David Lee.
That walk led directly to two of the seven runs, and after GB closed the gap, the final two Fort Walton runs that took the game out of reach in the bottom of the fifth inning were the direct result of a two-out walk to Andy Collins surrendered by GB relief pitcher Brad Gilmour.
Otherwise, as Head Coach Steve Patterson had said, GB had more than held their own, with 15 hits to 12 for Fort Walton. Both teams committed only three errors.
But Fort Walton pitcher Timmy Chapel gave up only one walk while GB pitchers surrendered five, including two automatic walks to women with two out. Those walks were arguably the difference, and when the teams meet again at some stage in the playoffs, GB will have to ensure that they don't give Fort Walton another free lunch.
And GB will also have to tighten up on defense. GB players dropped three infield pop flies or line drives in this game that should have been caught – but managed to get a force out every time. On another day, they might not be so lucky.
Brad Gilmour had another perfect game at the plate, with four singles in four at-bats, while Chris Yoxall had three hits including a long double and David Lee and Ed Watkinson had two hits each.
Friday
The full round-robin involving all eight teams will continue tomorrow (Friday).
GB will play Bulgaria at noon in the main stadium at the ISF complex that once served as a spring training stadium for the Cincinnati Reds, and then will have a key game against the USA Ink Daddyz at 6.00 pm. That game will probably determine who finishes second in the round-robin standings, and second is a place much to be desired, since the team that finishes third will open the playoffs against Fort Walton Beach.
USA Ink Daddyz and Fort Walton Beach will play each other at 3.00 pm, a game the GB Team will be keen to see.
Day 1 scores
The full set of scores from Thursday is as follows:
USA Fort Walton Beach 16, Curacao 1
GB 13, Canada 3
France 17, Turks & Caicos 11
USA Ink Daddyz 23, Bulgaria 6
USA Fort Walton Beach 15, Canada 0
USA Ink Daddyz 37, Curacao 1
Turks & Caicos 9, Bulgaria 8
GB 25, France 2
Canada 31, France 6
USA Ink Daddyz 29, Turks & Caicos 10
USA Fort Walton Beach 24, Bulgaria 7
GB 30, Curacao 5
USA Ink Daddyz 17, France 2
USA Fort Walton Beach 12, GB 7
Round-robin standings
The round-robin standings after Day 1 are:
USA Fort Walton Beach (4-0)
USA Ink Daddyz (4-0)
Great Britain (3-1)
Canada (1-2)
Turks & Caicos (1-2)
France (1-3)
Bulgaria (0-3)
Curacao (0-3)
All eight teams will make the Double Page Playoff round that begins on Saturday afternoon, but teams that wind up in the top four round-robin places will effectively be in a double elimination situation with regard to their chances of reaching the final, while those in the bottom four round-robin places can only lose once before their chance to get to the final is gone.
Tournament Notes
The GB Team arrived in Florida on Saturday and on Sunday, in a somewhat jet-lagged state, played in a USSSA tournament in the town of Dunedin against strong opposition. That was a learning curve for a team that has not played much together, and they also had to cope with USSSA rules which included a three-to-eight-foot pitching arc and base-stealing! But for Head Coach Steve Patterson and his staff (Assistant Coaches Martin Cartledge and Mike Ashley and Team Manager/Assistant Coach Sara Vertigan), game time and bringing the team together was far more important than results. After a day off Monday, the team trained on Tuesday and then played two more scrimmage games that evening near Orlando where, as Steve Patterson put it, “everything began to come together”. A light training session on Wednesday afternoon at the ISF complex finished off preparations for the tournament. “The squad is bonding really well,” Mike Ashley said, “and everyone is pretty relaxed. But once the tournament starts it will be all about confidence.”
Despite some big hitters in the two American teams, this will not be a competition with a ton of home runs. Fences are 310 feet and about 10 feet high. When the breeze comes up, it will push the ball in on some fields in the ISF's cloverleaf four-plex and out on others, but with ISF bat regulations keeping some of the hot bats used in local play out of the tournament, home runs could be collectors' items. The GB Slowpitch Team has traditionally depended on home runs in European Championships, but the only recognised long ball threats in the current squad are David Lee and Chris Yoxall, and so far they have only managed to hit balls near rather than over the fences. The corollary to this is that there is a lot of room for outfielders to cover and a premium on outfield speed, an area in which the GB Team excels.
Pete Saunders was meant to be the sole BASU umpire on the 12-person umpiring crew for this tournament, but Ireland's James O'Farrell was taken ill last week, and his place has been filled by another British umpire, Chris Moon. Europe is also represented by Francois Mays from France, while there is one umpire from Canada and eight umpires from across the United States.
BSF Treasurer and ESF Technical Officer Mike Jennings is here as a member of the tournament's Technical Commission, along with ISF Umpire-in Chief Bob Stanton and ISF Director of Competitions Laurie Gouthro.
In a speech to team delegates at the Technical Meeting on Wednesday evening, ISF Executive Director and former President Don Porter said that the development of international slowpitch competition is important to the ISF's future, and he hoped that the Slowpitch World Cup would become a regular event on the softball calendar. The last Slowpitch World Cup was held in 2005 and the first one in 2002. The problem is getting enough countries to participate, but this year's total of eight teams from seven countries is up on the entries from both of the previous competitions.
Three of the seven countries represented in the tournament – GB, France and Bulgaria – are from Europe. But where is a team from Ireland, who participated in the first two Slowpitch World Cups? There had also been hopes of a team from Slovenia, but cost and work issues were too much for the Slovenians to overcome.
Plant City, Florida, just off Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, is famous mainly for its summer Strawberry Festival. Surprisingly, however, what the locals call the “Historic Downtown Area”, about four square blocks of attractive low-rise buildings, is dominated by antique shops, with a wide range of furniture, memorabilia and other items ranging from elegance to junk. And it doesn't take long to discover the town's Southern hospitality. It's unusual to be given a hug by the proprietor of a coffee shop when you pay for your sandwich, and it may not be a custom that's likely to catch on in Britain. But it tends to make life just that bit more pleasant!