Wednesday 29 July -- The GB Slowpitch Team kept right on rolling on the second day of the European Slowpitch Championships in Dupnitsa, Bulgaria today with three more easy wins over the Czech Republic, Germany and Bulgaria.
This morning, GB scored in every inning in cruising past the Czech Republic 18-4, and this afternoon GB made short work of Germany in a four-inning mercy rule win by a score of 19-2. This evening, GB cruhed Bulgaria 23-2 in five innings. On Tuesday, GB had opened their account with a 23-2 win over Ireland and a 21-0 shutout of Lithuania.
The GB team has now played all five of the opposing teams at this tournament, and it is looking increasingly likely that none of them will be able to do much to stop GB from winning its 10th straight European Slowpitch Championship. In those five games, GB has outscored the opposition by 104 to 10, an average victory margin of almost 19 runs, and has out-hit its opponents by a total of 97-24.
It's true that what happens at the beginning of a tournament like this can sometimes be deceiving. GB Slowpitch Team players come to the competition ready to play slowpitch, while some players on other teams are making an adjustment from baseball or fastpitch. At last year's European Slowpitch Cup, the Chromies and H2O crushed all the opposition during the round-robin, but games got a lot tighter in the playoffs and the UCE Travellers from Germany wound up winning the tournament
Having said all that, the sheer talent and depth of this GB Slowpitch Team suggests that the kind of results achieved so far could well continue right through the final.
Here is a brief summary of today's three games:
GB v Czech Republic
Once again, GB got out of the blocks quickly against the Czech Republic, scoring eight runs in the bottom of the first inning. The British scored in all six innings in which they batted and were up 14-3 after three innings of play.
But it was the first time GB had been forced to go the full seven innings, and though they had 20 hits to just five given up to the Czechs by winning pitcher Dan Spinks, GB committed six errors to only two for their opponents, and all of the Czech runs were unearned.
GB's eight-run outburst to start the game came on seven singles and a walk, and was helped by the Czechs' inability to get outs on balls hit to the infield, even though no errors were involved.
Steve Hazard hit his fourth home run of the tournament to lead off the GB second inning, which produced another three runs. But the Czechs scored three of their own in the top of the third inning courtesy of two GB errors and a key double by Jiri Preclik.
GB matched that outburst in the bottom of the third inning as the Czechs committed their only two errors of the game, and the British added two more runs in the fourth inning, keyed by Danny Gunn's triple, and single runs in the fifth and sixth (Aaron Thomas tripled in the fifth and Danny Gunn hit another triple in the sixth).
The Czechs scored one more run in the fifth inning and stayed just on the right side of the mercy rule, but they were never in the game.
GB v Germany
In the absence of Slovenia at this competition, the country that has finished second at the last two European Slowpitch Championships, Germany was the team that many thought likely to be able to give GB a game. But there were no signs of that happening in this encounter, in which GB scored 16 runs in the first two innings and blasted five home runs during the game.
Two of the homers were by Steve Hazard, bringing his total to six in four games, while Ian Kulka also hit a pair of round-trippers and Chris Yoxall belted the other.
GB registered 19 hits in the game, while GB pitcher Brad Gilmour held the Germans to just three hits. Brad Gilmour, Jenny Ball, Steve Hazard and Ian Kulka were all 3-for-3 in the game, while Kim Hendry, Areej Elmaazi and Emily Clifford had two hits each.
In a pattern that has become familiar in three of the four games GB has played so far, Germany went down in order in the top of the first inning, and then GB came out firing in the bottom half. This time, Brad Gilmour led off with a single to left, Jenny Ball singled to centre, both runners moved up when the ball was bobbled in centre field, and then Steve Hazard blasted a home run down the left field line to clear the bases. But there was no respite for the Germans, as Kim Hendry singled, Chris Yoxall also homered down the left field line, and Areej Elmaazi singled to left -- six straight hits and five runs before the Germans recorded an out.
GB went on to score seven in that first inning, gave the Germans an unearned run in the top of the second, then came back to bat and scored nine more runs on 10 more hits in the bottom of the second inning. Another two-run home run by Steve Hazard was the big blow, but there was a single and a double for Brad Gilmour, two singles for Jenny Ball and more singles by Kim Hendry, Areej Elmaazi, Emily Clifford, Ian Kulka and Steve Hazard.
The Germans scored one more run in the top of the third inning on a double by Mark Krewitt that drove in Karim Abu-Omar, but three more runs by GB in the bottom of the third, featuring Ian Kulka's two-run home run, extended the score to 19-2. When Germany failed to score in the top of the fourth inning, the mercy rule brought the game to an end.
GB v Bulgaria
Against the host team Bulgaria in the featured evening game, GB's offensive onslaught continued. Once again, they scored in all five innings of the game, and six runs in the top of the first inning set the tone.
There were three more GB home runs, by Chris Yoxall, Ian Kulka and, inevitably, Steve Hazard, giving him seven home runs and 19 RBIs in five games. Steve is also tied for the tournament lead in hits, and is the undisputed leader in home runs and total bases.
On the tournament leader board after two days of play, Brad Gilmour is hitting 1.000 (in five at-bats), Ian Kulka and Chris Yoxall are hitting .900 (9-for-10), Dan Spinks is batting .889, Steve Hazard .857 and Aaron Thomas .714. The GB Team as a whole is batting .602 for the tournament with 16 home runs, twice as many as the next-best team, Germany, with eight.
Among the women, Kim Hendry is batting .667, Vicky Chapman .583 and Areej Elmaazi and Emily Clifford are both hitting .571. Only three of GB's 18 players are hitting below .400. Even in slowpitch, these are extraordinary numbers and indicate why GB is so far crushing all opposition.
GB's six runs in the top of the first inning included a two-run home run by Chris Yoxall, a double by Vicky Chapman and three walks from Bulgarian starting pitcher Youri Alkalay.
GB bats were relatively quiet in the second and third innings, with only three runs scored in each frame, but another six runs came in the top of the fourth inning, four of them on a bases-loaded pinch-hit home run by Steve Hazard.
In the top of the fifth inning, GB added a final five runs to activate the mercy rule, with a triple by Areej Elmaazi and a home run by Ian Kulka the key hits.
As he did at the 2013 European Championships in the Czech Republic and the 2014 Slowpitch World Cup in Florida, GB Head Coach Steve Patterson is rotating his players and getting contributions from all of them. And as usual when GB plays in Europe, the batting of GB women players compared to the women on opposing teams gives the British much more chance of sustaining rallies and scoring runs in bunches rather than one or two at a time.
The key question after two days of play and one round in the double round-robin is: can anyone even keep the GB Team to less than a double-digit margin of victory?
Results
The European Slowpitch Championships are being played as a double round-robin, with the top four teams going to a Page Playoff on Saturday and the bottom two teams playing off for fifth place.
Scores over the first two days of the tournament plus standings are below:
TUESDAY
GB 23, Ireland 2
Germany 18, Czech Republic 7
GB 21, Lithuania 0
Ireland 21, Bulgaria 5
Germany 13, Lithuania 10
Czech Republic 14, Bulgaria 9
WEDNESDAY
Ireland 23, Germany 20
GB 18, Czech Republic 4
Bulgaria 21, Lithuania 1
GB 19, Germany 2
Czech Republic 15, Ireland 3
Bulgaria 18, Germany 9
Ireland 16, Lithuania 1
GB 23, Bulgaria 2
Czech Republic 24, Lithuania 6
Standings after the first two days of round-robin play are:
GB (5-0)
Czech Republic (3-2)
Ireland (3-2)
Bulgaria (2-3
Germany (2-3)
Lithuania (0-5)
Round-robin games to be played on Thursday and Friday are:
THURSDAY
Bulgaria v Lithuania
Ireland v Germany
GB v Czech Republic
Ireland v Lithuania
Germany v Bulgaria
Czech Republic v Lithuania
GB v Germany
Czech Republic v Ireland
GB v Bulgaria
FRIDAY
Czech Republic v Bulgaria
Germany v Lithuania
GB v Ireland
GB v Lithuania
Germany v Czech Republic
Ireland v Bulgaria