by Bob Fromer
Plant City, Florida: 23 January – The 3rd ISF Slowpitch World Cup got under way this morning in temperatures more suited to Britain than Florida, but the GB Slowpitch Team made it a successful start with a 13-3 win over Canada in a 9.00 am game at the International Softball Federation's headquarters complex in this small Central Florida town.
The Canadian team, from Burnage, British Columbia, was the same team that represented their country in the World Police and Fire Games last year in Belfast.
Team GB will have three more games later today, meeting France at 1.30 pm, Curacao at 4.30 and one of the two American teams in the competition, Fort Walton Beach, under the lights at 6.00 pm, and those games will go a long way to determining where GB will wind up at the end of the round-robin phase of the tournament.
The Fort Walton Beach Team, from the northwest corner of the Florida Panhandle, is mainly a US military team and is led by Cheryl Trapnell, one of the two high-level slowpitch coaches who came to Britain last summer for a two-week coaching tour of England and Scotland.
Cheryl, who was stationed in Britain at the time, was also a member of the Scottish team The Clan that won the last Slowpitch World Cup in 2005.
GB v Canada
It was a slow start for the GB Team on a morning when Floridians woke up to the unusual task of having to scrape ice off their car windscreens. The Canadians scored single runs in each of the first three innings and held a 3-1 lead as GB came to bat in the bottom of the third.
But GB then sent 12 batters to the plate, put seven runs on the board, and turned the game decisively their way. Canada failed to score any further runs, GB pitcher David Lee wound up throwing a seven-hitter (though he struggled with control at times pitching directly into the sun) and GB continued to add on with further runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
The GB attack came up with 18 hits in total and the GB defense played solid softball, with only a single inconsequential error in the seventh inning when the game was already won. That error was committed by Lucy Binding at third base, but she more than made up for it during the game with two fine plays – a diving stop for a force out in the second inning and a good scoop and throw on a slow roller in the seventh. Ian Kulka also had a fine game at shortstop, with four assists and three putouts.
“We played a nice, tidy game,” said GB Manager Sara Vertigan afterwards. “We're happy with that as a start.”
Early nerves
There were signs of nervousness at the plate for GB during the first couple of innings. Ben Taylor led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to right-centre, but Kirstie Leach, Chris Yoxall and Areej Elmaazi all bounced into force plays.
In the second inning, GB scored their first run on consecutive hits by Emily Clifford, Michael Williams and Lucy Binding, but Ian Kulka hit into a force play and Kath Golik flew out to end the inning.
The Canadians, meanwhile, were chipping away. They scored one in the top of the first inning on an RBI walk to left fielder Iain Grant, another in the second on a two-out RBI single by leadoff hitter Dale Quiring and a third in the top of the third when shortstop Gabriel Chua drove an inside-the-park home run over the head of GB left fielder Michael Williams.
Seven-run outburst
But everything changed when GB finally found their bats for an impressive two-out rally in the bottom of the third inning.
Ben Taylor grounded out to lead off the inning, Kirstie Leach scorched a line drive double into right centre field, but then Chris Yoxall flew out to left. With two outs and a runner on second base, there didn't seem to be much of a threat – until the sheer speed of GB left-centre fielder Areej Elmaazi changed the inning and the game.
Areej hit a slow ground ball down the third base line, and beat the throw to first. But the throw had been rushed and got past first base player Caroline Martin, allowing Kirstie Leach to score. David Lee then blooped a little single into short right-centre field and Areej never stopped running, scoring all the way from first before the Canadians knew what had happened. That run tied the game, and seemed to liberate the GB bats.
Emily Clifford singled sharply to left, Michael Williams drew a walk, Lucy Binding took the automatic walk, and then Ian Kulka and Kath Golik hit sharp singles and Ben Taylor doubled. By the time Kirstie Leach flew out to right field to end the inning, GB had turned a 3-1 deficit into a 8-3 lead.
No problem
With the nerves now gone, GB stayed in control for the rest of the game.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Chris Yoxall singled, Areej Elmaazi doubled, and Chris scored on a sacrifice fly by Emily Clifford.
In the bottom of the fifth, Kath Golik singled home a pair of runs to stretch the lead to 11-3.
And in the bottom of the sixth, David Lee and Emily Clifford led off with singles, David scored on an error and Lucy Binding's ground ball brought in Emily.
It was a comfortable win in the end, and is bound to give a team with a number of international rookies some confidence for the three games coming up this afternoon.
Ben Taylor and Emily Clifford wound up with three hits each, while Areej Elmaazi, David Lee, Ian Kulka an Kath Golik had two each.
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.”
Unless the two American teams in the tournament have some big hitters, this may not be a competition with a ton of home runs. Fences are 310 feet and about 10 feet high. If it gets windy, that 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 collector's 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 in practice yesterday they were hitting balls near rather than over the fences. The corollary to this is that there will be a lot of room for outfielders to cover and a premium on outfield speed.
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 costs 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 elegant 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!