The Great Britain Under-16 Girls' Fastpitch Team decided to compete in Division 2 of the Great Britain Fastpitch League this season to get some experience prior to their European Championships in August.
But the Under-16s shocked the league by gaining promotion to Division 1 on 18 May, and on 25 May they retained their place in the top division.
GB v GB
The Great Britain Fastpitch League on 25 May was blessed with fine weather for the third straight date, and also with some dramatic softball.
The opening game of the day in Division 1 saw the GB Under-16 Girls take on the GB Under-19 Women, and both teams featured quality guest pitchers. In the absence of GB Under-16 starter Amie Hutchison from Norfolk, who has pitched extremely well on the first two GBFL dates, winning three out of four games played, the Under-16s put GB Women's Team pitching coach Megan Brown in the circle. Meanwhile, the Under-19 Women, whose regular pitchers are all based overseas, called on young GB Men's Team star Josh Peat.
The result was a fine pitching duel in which the Under-19 Women came out on top by a score of only 3-1, and the result might have been even more surprising if the Under-16s hadn't run themselves out of a number of scoring opportunities by trying to take ill-advised extra bases, and by challenging the arm of GB Women's Team catcher Steph Pearce, just back from completing her college softball career at the University of Bridgeport, on equally ill-advised attempts to steal second base. Steph led her college conference this year in throwing out runners attempting to steal.
It was a quality game, and the Under-16s showed once again that they could hold their own with almost anyone.
But in order to retain their Division 1 place, the Under-16s had to knock off the GB Under-19 Men in the afternoon, and it wasn't even close. The Under-16s had a 16-2 mercy rule win, and while some wildness from Under-19 pitchers helped, the victory was earned with key base hits and excellent baserunning, as if the Under-16s had learned their lessons from the morning.
Masters of the GBFL universe
While the achievements of the GB Under-16s in particular have been hogging the GBFL headlines this year, it's worth remembering that the all-conquering Meteors Men Team remain undefeated in six GBFL games so far, and look set to win the league title.
The Meteors are made up of a number of members of the World #9 GB Men's Team and other strong players, and on 25 May they cruised to a 16-3 win over the GB Under-19 Men in the morning and then steamrollered the GB Under-19 Women by 15-3 in the afternoon.
This is a team that's way too good for the rest of the league – but at this point in the evolution of domestic fastpitch competition, there's nowhere else for them go play.
Angels fail to rise
The other main story of the day was whether the UK's leading women's fastpitch club team the London Angels, unexpectedly relegated to Division 2 on 18 May, could win both their Division 2 games on 25 May and climb back to Division 1. Their task was made even harder by having to do this against two teams primarily made up of male players.
First up was the GB Under-19 Men. Three different pitchers for the Under-19 Men had trouble finding the plate in the first inning, giving up 11 runs, and that was all the Angels needed to set them en route to a 13-2 win behind the pitching of Kylie Marshall.
So far so good, but in the last game of the day, the Angels came up against a strong Bucks team, with a mixture of men and women and Stan Doney doing the pitching.
Going into the bottom of the seventh inning, the Angels trailed 7-2. But they staged a dramatic rally, scoring four times and getting the tying run to third base before Stan Doney put a called third strike past Maya Traykova to end the game.
So the Angels will have to spend at least one more week trying to clamber out of Division 2.
Promotion, relegation and scores
With the bottom team from Division 1 and the top team from Division 2 trading places after each day's play in the GBFL, it's the Bucks team that will move up to Division 1 when the league reconvenes at Richings Park on 1 June, and the GB Under-19 Men who will go down to Division 2.
The full set of scores on 25 May was:
Division 1
GB Under-19 Women 3, GB Under-16s 1
Meteors 16, GB Under-19 Men 3
Meteors 15, GB Under-19 Women 3
GB Under-16s 16, GB Under-19 Men 2
Division 2
Angels 13, GB Under-19 Men 2
Bucks 13, Oxford 4
Bucks 7, Angels 6
GB Under-19 Men 23, Oxford 16
If you have noticed that some teams seemed to be playing across divisions, and playing extra games, it's because the Bank Holiday meant that Division 2 Sussex team didn't make it, and the GB Under-19 Men played extra games instead. They should be commended for their efforts in playing four games on the day to make sure that all the other teams had opposition.