It was another interesting day of action as the Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL) had its second outing of the season on Saturday 18 May at Richings Park.
With promotion and relegation between Divisions 1 and 2 happening after each day's play, it was the GB Under-16 Girls who unexpectedly won promotion to Division 1, while Britain's leading women's club team, the London Angels, suffered an even more unexpected relegation to Division 2.
There were two more highlights on the day. One was the first appearance in the league this year by GB Women's Team pitching coach Megan Brown, a former standout college and Pro League pitcher in the United States, who is in the UK for three months to help develop fastpitch pitchers here and to raise standards of pitching in the GBFL.
The second was a visit by Head Coach Keri Meyer and Admissions Officer Michaela Howell from Monroe College in New York City. The college is keen to recruit overseas athletes, and Keri and Michaela gave presentations about the college and its softball programme to players from the GB Under-19 Women and U-16 Girls' teams.
GB Under-16s progress
The decision to have the GB U-19 Women and Men and the GB Under-16 Girls play in the league this year as separate teams looks increasingly vindicated in terms of the competition experience they're getting – and no one has benefited more than the GB Under-16 Girls.
Under new Under-16 Head Coach Jeremy Thomas, who received the Youth Coach of the Year Award from the BSF at this year's AGM for his work last year with the Under-13 Development Team, the Under-16s have now won three of the four games they've played against older or adult opposition in Division 2 of the GBFL this year. And their two wins on 18 May mean they will play in Division 1 when the league resumes on Saturday 25 May.
This time, the U-16s defeated a largely adult co-ed team from Sussex who were handicapped by lack of a specialist pitcher by a score of 14-4, and then had a fine 6-4 win over a male team from Bucks Fastpitch. GB Under-16 pitcher Amie Hutchison from Norfolk was outstanding in this game, and afterwards, it was fun to see some of the Bucks players shaking their heads at being beaten by a team of “young girls”.
“Yes,” said one of them, “but it's a pretty talented team of young girls!” And with the experience and confidence the Under-16s are gaining in the GBFL, they will be confident about their chances when the European Cadette (Under-16) Championships come around in August in the Czech Republic.
Under-19s prosper
Both the GB Under-19 Women and Men had close and well-played wins over the London Angels, who have long held the title of Britain's leading women's fastpitch club team, and those two losses will send the Angels – probably temporarily – into Division 2 for the next round of GBFL games.
With GB Women's Team pitching coach Megan Brown throwing for them, the GB Under-19 Women came from behind against the Angels and pitcher Kylie Marshall for a 7-3 win, with some clutch hitting from Charlotte Wells, Chloe Wigington and Lucy Hall. Kylie Marshall provided the offensive highlight for the Angels with a long home run to left field in her first at-bat against Megan Brown.
In the final game of the day, the GB Under-19 Men held off the Angels behind the pitching of Carl Sharpe for a 10-8 win.
Meteors rampant
Both GB Under-19 teams lost to the Meteors Men's Team, who are undefeated so far in four GBFL outings this season.
Even though many of the Meteors' top players from the GB Men's Team were away at a tournament in Holland over the weekend, the Meteors, with Steve Hazard and Robbie Robison anchoring the infield and Ross Smith doing the pitching, defeated the Under-19 Men by a score of 14-10 in the morning, and then held down the Under-19 Women in the afternoon to win 8-1.
Robbie Robison crushed a long two-run home run in the first inning off Megan Brown's pitching in the afternoon game.
Scores: May 18
GBFL results on 18 May were:
Division 1
GB U-19 Women 7, Angels 3
Meteors 14, GB U-19 Men 10
Meteors 8, GB U-19 Women 1
GB U-19 Men 10, Angels 8
Division 2
Bucks 9, Oxford 7
GB U-16s 14, Sussex 4
GB U-16s 6, Bucks 4
Oxford 23, Sussex 11