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by Bob Fromer

Rosmalen, Netherlands – After the high of Thursday night's dramatic comeback win over the Netherlands, Friday was a day of disappointment for the GB Under-19 Women's Fastpitch Team at the European Junior Championships.

The GB Team played and lost two games on Friday.  The first, a 7-2 loss to Italy in the last game of the Championship playoff round, meant nothing.  The second loss, by 6-2 to Russia in the 3v4 game in the Page Playoff, condemned the GB Team to a fourth place finish at the tournament and ended their hopes of a medal.

The GB Team ended the competition with a record of 7-3, the best ever in an Under-19 Championship, as was their fourth place finish.  Sadly, however, the GB Team will only be spectators on Saturday as the three remaining teams – Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic – will play to see who winds up with the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.

Anticipation

The story of GB's loss to Italy can be read below, along with an explanation of why, beyond a certain point, the game was meaningless for both teams.

But ever since this morning, when the news came through that Russia had handed the Netherlands their fourth straight one-run defeat and knocked the Dutch out of a Page Playoff spot, GB's focus was on the 3v4 game with Russia, played at 6.00 pm this evening.  The winner would live to play on Saturday and would be guaranteed at least a Bronze medal; the loser would wind up in fourth place but their tournament would be over.

And after GB's 9-2 win over Russia earlier in the competition, the GB Team was looking forward to playing the Russians again.

Even start

Today, however, the rigours of playing so many games in such a short period of time – including three games on Thursday – seemed to catch up to the GB Team, who have a small squad and players carrying injuries.  Against Italy, this didn't really matter; against the Russians, the fact that GB seemed unable to summon up the energy and spirit they had carried all through the tournament was fatal.

But the game against the Russians started out as an even contest and only gradually slipped away from GB as the game progressed.

Emma Bridge, who had started GB's previous three games (though she pitched less than three innings against Italy this morning) was in the circle again for GB, and set the Russians down in order in the top of the first inning.

Russia sent out Irina Ilyashenko, the pitcher who had lost to Britain earlier in the week, and GB took the lead against her in the bottom of the first inning.  With one out, Keeli Waugh singled into hole between short and third, advanced to second on a walk to Lauren Evans and scored when Russian right fielder Anastasia Makeshina dropped Kirsten Mack's eminently catchable fly ball.

The Russians went down without scoring in the second inning as well, but in the top of the third they broke through against Emma Bridge and took a 2-1 lead on a lead-off triple by Ekaterina Aleshina and three successive singles.

Back came GB to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the third when Keeli Waugh tripled to right centre field, and slid hard into home to jar the ball loose from the Russian catcher on an ground ball by Lauren Evans.

Slip-sliding away

Conscious of the workload that Emma Bridge had carried over the past two days and over the week as a whole, GB Head Coach Rachael Watkeys brought Georgina Corrick in to pitch at the start of the fourth inning. 

Georgina, hampered by what appears to be tendinitis in her knee, has spent most of the tournament playing third base more or less on one leg, but she seems able to pitch without apparent problems.  However, the Russians began to chip away at her almost immediately and an even game began to slip away from Team GB as errors crept into their play.

Russia took a 4-2 lead with two runs in the top of the fourth inning as GB committed three errors and second base player Sian Wigington, who has been nursing a quad strain all week, finally felt it go as she chased a pop-up behind second base and had to be replaced.

Another run in the fifth inning on a single by Viktoria Sorokina and a fly ball double by Natalia Kuzmina made the score 5-2, and a final Russian run in the top of the six stretched the lead to 6-2.  GB seemed to be running on fumes by this time, and the last Russian run came about when Ekaterina Aleshina singled, advanced all the way to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a ground out.  The Russians seemed to have the energy and the GB team seemed spent.

Which is not to say that GB didn't have opportunities.  Lauren Evans and Kirsten Mack singled and reached second and third with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, but Georgina Corrick struck out and Emma Bridge grounded out to second.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the last chance saloon, Keeli Waugh singled with one out, and Kirsten Mack walked with two out.  But Georgina Corrick bounced back to pitcher Irina Ilyashenko and GB's tournament was over.

Perspective

Despite the downbeat ending, this has been a tremendous week for GB Softball and the GB Under-19 Team.  The team has gelled together beautifully, played some high-quality softball and caught the attention of everyone at the tournament. 

The GB Team will come away remembering the highs much more than the lows – and there were a lot more highs over the course of the week.

 

GB v Italy

Against Italy on Friday afternoon, the GB Team lost 7-2 to Italy in a game that had little meaning for either team. 

The game was the last of the Championship playoff round for both teams, and it was meaningless to the Italians because they would be seeded first in the Page Playoff regardless of whether they won or lost.

It was almost meaningless for GB because, unless they could both beat the Italians and hold them to less than three runs at the same time, GB would be seeded third in the Page Playoff – and Britain's slim chance of being seeded second vanished in the bottom of the third inning when Italy broke a 2-2 tie with three runs.

After that, GB removed starting pitcher Emma Bridge, who had looked tired in any case after pitching 13 innings on Thursday, and Niamh Walker (2.2 innings pitched for one run) and Amie Hutchison (one scoreless inning) finished up the game.

Italy scored a single run in each of the first two innings as Emma Bridge once again demonstrated her ability to keep a problem from escalating into a crisis.  Italy had the opportunity to put a crooked number on the board in each of those innings, but on both occasions Emma got the final two outs to strand Italian runners at second and third.

GB rally

In the top of the third inning, GB tied the score and knocked Italian starter Veronica Comar out of the game.

Chloe Wigington led off the inning with a single to deep short, and was safe at second when the Italian shortstop misplayed Amie Hutchison's ground ball.  Amy Trask struck out after failing to get a bunt down, but Hayley D'Avilar pulled a single through the right side of a drawn-in Italian infield to score Chloe and bring a new Italian pitcher, Alice Nicolini, into the game.

GB then got their wires crossed when Hayley D'Avilar stole second but Amie Hutchison broke for home on the throw and the Italians nailed Amie at the plate.  However Keeli Waugh followed with a single into right centre field to drive in Hayley.
 

Italians add on

It was clear from the beginning of the game that Emma Bridge didn't have her best stuff or her usual good control, and the Italians ended any lingering GB hopes of a second-place seeding in the Page Playoff by adding three more runs in the bottom of the third.

Erika Piancastelli led off the inning with a triple into the gap in right centre field and Melany Sheldon walked.  GB managed to get Piancastelli out in a rundown, but Sheldon came around to third while the rundown was going on and scored on a bouncer to second base by Mariel Bertossi.  Knowing that this was the run that would end GB's hopes of second place, Sian Wigington made an attempt to cut down the run at the plate, but never really had a chance.

After Emma Bridge walked the next batter (she gave up an uncharacteristic five walks in less than three innings), GB brought in Niamh Walker to pitch and simply played out the rest of the game.  The Italians added two more runs in that third inning and one each in the fourth and fifth.  Amie Hutchison then took over and pitched a scoreless sixth.

One of the Italian runs in the third inning was disputed because it scored after a sharp ground ball hit by centre fielder Elise Checchetti with the bases loaded and two outs struck the runner going from first to second.  The ball caromed away sharply and all three runners scored.  But after lengthy discussions, the umpires refused to rule the hit baserunner out because the ball had passed the GB infielders before it hit her, but they did only allow the one run to score and sent the other runners back to their bases.

GB had at least one baserunner in every inning from the fourth inning through the seventh, but couldn't string hits together against Alice Nicolini, who featured an effective change-up and a hard curve ball on the outside corner.

Both teams, with Page Playoff games to play later in the day, were keen to get the game over, but the Italians couldn't reach a mercy rule total and GB couldn't cut into their lead.  The final score was 7-2.

 

Playoff results

Final standings in the Championship playoff group that preceded the Page Playoff were:

Italy (5-0)
Czech Republic (4-1)
Great Britain (3-2)
Russia (2-3)
Netherlands (1-4)
France (0-5)
 

Page Playoff

Russia 6, GB 2 (3v4 game)
Czech Republic 5, Italy 0 (1 v 2 game)
Italy v Russia (Saturday at 10.00 am)
Final: Czech Republic v winner of Italy v Russia (Saturday at 4.00 pm)

Photos by Simon Mortimer

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