By Bob Fromer
Pardubice, Czech Republic: 18 July – Just over halfway through the double round-robin at the 2013 European Slowpitch Championships, the tournament is beginning to take shape.
The GB Slowpitch Team is now sitting at 6-0. GB has mercy-ruled four of their five opponents and then had a 4-1 win over Slovenia at lunchtime today in a game that was exceptionally well played by both teams and confirms the fact that Slovenia can challenge GB's attempt to win a ninth straight European crown.
Germany, despite losing badly to GB this morning, look the “best of the rest” at this tournament and are a good bet for a third place finish, with an outside chance (“anything can happen in a single game”) of upsetting the Slovenians in the Page Playoffs. Germany only lost 4-7 to Slovenia yesterday in a game they might have won.
The Czech Republic, who never seem to put forward a true “national team” for this tournament, but instead base their national squad around the club that won last year's Czech National Slowpitch Championships, have struggled, even losing to the tournament minnows Serbia this morning. But the Czechs bounced back to beat Ireland 4-2 and could still squeak into the playoffs if they can beat Ireland again and then Serbs in the last game before they playoffs begin.
The saddest story at this tournament is perhaps the Irish, who until this afternoon had had only a single win against Serbia in five games played. Even worse, Ireland had scored only five runs in their last four games, and unless they could win both games against the Germans and Czechs this afternoon, they were in danger of not making the playoffs for the first time since the European Slowpitch Championships began in 1998.
Fortunately for Ireland, they bounced back with a 7-4 win over Germany and will play the Czechs later.
This is largely an Irish “development squad”, as the team attempts to rebuild with younger players. But it has been a steady decline for the Irish since the heady days of 2002 and 2004, when they had a team that was as good or better than GB, but still could never win the big prize.
After the Irish lost 6-2 to Germany in their first game this morning, the players sent the coaches away and held a pep meeting. “We're well capable of beating teams like this!” was the theme, and “We need to start doing it now!” But the truth is that it's not clear what the present Irish team is capable of. The win over Germany was a good result, but Ireland still has it all to do.
GB v Germany
Germany played well yesterday on the opening day of the tournament, winning two games and losing only 7-4 to Slovenia. Their most dramatic win came in an evening encounter with the Czech Republic after the Opening Ceremony, when Germany held a comfortable lead, lost it in the sixth inning, then came back to win 10-9 during the eighth inning tiebreaker as both darkness and the hungry mosquitoes that infest the Krtcova Arena in the evening closed in.
So GB saw Germany as their first test this morning, and sent out a line-up that was probably not their strongest to see if some of those players could stake a claim for a starting place.
In the end, the GB line-up handled Germany easily.
Close opening
The game was close for about an inning. GB, up first, scored immediately as Danny Gunn led off with his third inside-the-park home run of the tournament, this one (unlike his other two) belted into the left field corner. Ruth Macintosh then tripled to right field and scored on a sacrifice fly by Dan Spinks, and with two out, German pitcher Kai Lody gave up walks to Ian Kulka and Lucy Binding, and Ian came in to score on a single by Lee Cornwall for a 3-0 GB lead.
But Germany pulled one back in the bottom of the first inning when third base player Sabrina Mauerer tripled to left centre field with a runner on base.
After that, GB pitcher Dan Spinks gave the Germans nothing – no more runs and only four more hits, all singles, and an efficient GB defense (only one harmless error) did the rest.
The bats take over
Meanwhile, GB just never stopped scoring. They added three more runs in the second inning, seven in the third, five in the fourth and one more in the fifth for good measure.
Danny Gunn went four-for-four with two doubles and a single to go with his lead-off inside-the-park home run, stretching his consecutive hit streak in the tournament to 11.
Jenny Ball drove in all three GB runs in the second inning with a long inside-the-park home run to right centre field, and Jenny, along with Lucy Binding, Ian Kulka, Dan Spinks and Ruth Macintosh, had two hits each as the GB attack piled up a total of 20 hits in five innings and almost everyone on the roster was given at least one at-bat.
The game ended on a very nice note. As the teams came back on to the field to shake hands after the final out, both sides joined in singing Happy Birthday to GB third base player Chiya Louie.
GB v Slovenia
This was the game that the players on both unbeaten teams had been waiting for – the first chance to test themselves against each other.
The result was the first close game that GB has faced, and the team came through it well, winning 4-1 with great pitching, excellent defense and just enough runs.
In fact, both pitchers – Roger Grooms for GB and Ales Mravlje for Slovenia – threw beautiful games, keeping hitters off balance, challenging the 12-foot restriction and issuing no walks.
“I think I threw first-pitch strikes to all but two or three hitters,” said Roger Grooms after the game, and that was the key to his success. Roger gave up only five hits – four singles and a two-out double – and only four other balls were even hit to the outfield.
It also helps to have a shortstop with the ability of Steve Hazard behind you. Steve had six assists and four putouts in the game and made every ground ball hit to him look demoralisingly easy if you're the other team, with every throw coming to first base player Emily Clifford exactly chest-high.
Slovenian threat
Slovenia's main threat came in the sixth inning when they scored their lone run – but with GB leading only 4-0 at the time, the threat was potentially serious.
Gabrijela Humerca first reached to lead off the inning when Chiya Louie couldn't come up with her hard ground ball. Andraz Skabar hit the ball back to Roger Grooms, but Roger went for the force out at second without reckoning on Humerca's excellent speed, and both runners were safe. Then Tina Kramberger singled to right field, and Slovenia had a run in, two on and none out.
Peter Milosic flied out to Ben Taylor in right centre field for the first out. Tjasa Skabar then hit a ball sharply up the middle. It deflected off Roger Grooms' glove, but Steve Hazard stabbed it, stepped on second and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.
Slovenia did have two singles in the seventh inning, including one that rolled about 15 feet in front of home plate and died on the infield grass at the tournament's second field at Svitkova, and had runners on first and second with one out. But Barbara Perhaj grounded into a fielder's choice and Ziga Bauer flied harmlessly to left field to end the game.
GB runs
GB's offense was confined to the first three innings.
Ben Taylor led off the game and reached on an error. Ben remained at first base as Jenny Ball and Brett Gibbens flew out, but Chiya Louie singled to left, Steve Hazard doubled to right centre, Nicola Duerden singled to left, and GB had two runs.
They added another in the second inning when Roger Grooms and Emily Clifford singled and Roger eventually scored on a ground out by Ben Taylor.
GB's final run came in the third inning when Steve Hazard singled and scored on a booming triple to right field by Danny Gunn, his twelfth straight hit of the tournament. Sadly, the streak came to an end in the fifth inning when Danny hit a long fly ball that was caught in right field.
More to come
So GB won their first encounter with Slovenia, but there will be more to come, especially in the Page Playoff on Saturday.
“That's what here for – close games,” said GB Head Coach Steve Patterson after the game. “But keeping them to one run is some kind of feat.”
Slovenia's management – John Lehmann and Derek Ward – were also happy with the game, if not the outcome. “It showed we can play with them,” John Lehmann said, “and we feel we have a lot more to give.”
Even though the remaining round-robin games may be a formality for both teams, the outcome on Saturday between two excellent teams is still anyone's guess.
GB v Serbia
Coming down from the high of the close and well-played game against Slovenia, GB were efficient in an 18-0 five-inning mercy rule drubbing of Serbia back at the main field at Krtcova Arena late this afternoon.
David Lee had his first pitching outing for GB in the competition, and restricted the Serbians to just one hit in five innings, and set the side down in order in three of the five innings.
GB started slowly with three runs in the first inning, but then picked up seven runs in both the second and third innings and added a final run in the fourth on a total of 17 hits.
With the usual ESF “mush ball” in play for the male batters (the women's ball is a little better), GB power hitters like Brett Gibbens, Dan Spinks and David Lee have resigned themselves to going for singles and doubles, and the trio collected seven hits in the game, including two doubles from David Lee and an inside-the-park home run by Dan Spinks into the right field corner. Dan had five RBIs in the game and Lee Cornwall and Chiya Louie each had two hits.
Marathon Friday
GB will face a marathon of four games tomorrow (Friday), playing Germany at 8.45 am, the Czechs at 11.30, Slovenia at 2.00 pm and Ireland at 5.30. “That's less than a usual tournament day for British softballers,” you may say, but remember that this competition is like four UK tournament days in a row and that can be wearing.
However, up to this point, every member of the 18-player GB roster has got plenty of game time, and that should serve the team well.
“We know what our best line-up is,” said Assistant Coach Mike Ashley, “and we can put it out there if we have to. But everyone has got plenty of playing time, which is great, and everyone has done well, so they'll be ready to contribute when they need to.”
Scores
Scores of games played so far today are:
Slovenia 19, Serbia 4
Germany 6, Ireland 2
Serbia 11, Czech Republic 9
GB 18, Germany 1
Czech Republic 4, Ireland 2
GB 4, Slovenia 1
Ireland 7, Germany 4
GB 18, Serbia 0
Pool records
Won-lost records to date, with two games remaining today, are:
GB (6-0)
Slovenia (4-1)
Germany (3-3)
Ireland (2-4)
Serbia (1-5)
Czech Republic (0-4)