by Bob Fromer
Rosmalen, Netherlands – On Thursday evening, at the European Junior Championships, the GB Under-19 Women's Fastpitch Team pulled off the greatest result in British international softball history.
The Netherlands was leading 5-0 when GB came to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning, and though Britain had been in the game all way, it looked like the end result would be a routine win for the defending European Junior Champions.
Twenty minutes later, a delirious GB Team and their supporters were wildly celebrating an unbelievable 8-7 walkoff win over Holland in the bottom of the eighth inning after Amie Hutchison lined a single to right field to drive in the tying and winning runs. It was a win that required GB to not only come up with five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the score, but then to come back again after the Dutch scored twice in the top of the eighth.
How could this possibly have happened? The answers are coming up....
Earlier results
But first, earlier in the day, GB had lost their first game of the tournament 6-0 to the Czech Republic in the morning, then came back in the afternoon to beat France 7-0 behind Emma Bridges' five-inning no-hitter (reports on both games are below).
That win ensured that GB would finish among the top four teams in the tournament and get to the Page Playoffs – but the win against the Dutch raises the possibility that GB could grab second place in that final group. And for the first and second-placed teams, a Page Playoff is effectively a double-elimination affair, whereas the teams that play the 3v4 game get only one shot to stay in the competition.
To be ranked in second place for the Page Playoff, GB will need to beat Italy on Friday afternoon and keep the Italians from scoring more than two runs. Generally, you would think, a tall order. But after tonight's extraordinary result against the Dutch, why not?
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Heroic pitching
Emma Bridge picked up her fifth win of the tournament in the game against Holland, and though everyone in the GB line-up contributed to an extraordinary result, no one deserved the win more. Emma had already thrown five no-hit innings against France earlier in the day, and now she had to pitch eight pressure-filled innings against what most people regard as the top team in Europe.
Yes, the Dutch scored seven runs in the game, but that doesn't begin to indicate how well and how courageously Emma pitched. Emma doesn't really have the weapons to dominate a team like the Dutch, and they were bound to get their hits against her – as it turned out, 15 hits in all.
But Emma has the invaluable knack of keeping her composure when things are unravelling around her, and keeping to her game plan. And there is no situation so bad that she doesn't think she can pitch out of it – and amazingly often, she does. She just keeps trying to hit her spots and keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, and she makes terrific pitches when she really has to.
But then she needs some luck, and some help from her teammates.
In this game, the first two Dutch runs came home in the second inning when a two-out ground ball to shortstop went through Keeli Waugh's legs.
The Dutch scored again in the top of the fifth, when GB left fielder Chloe Wigington, battling the sun and a line drive curving wickedly away from her, failed to catch the ball.
Two more runs came in the top of the seventh, but only on a two-out bloop hit just over the infield. It might have been more but for a fine running catch in right centre field by Amie Hutchison with two outs and a runner on third, Amie pulling the ball out of the air at the last second with a nonchalant flick of her glove.
And that's how GB came up in the bottom of the seventh inning trailing by 5-0, with nothing to suggest that anything dramatic was going to happen.
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The miracle unfolds
That's because the GB offense had come up with precisely one hit over the first six innings against Dutch pitcher Ilona Andringa, a single to centre field in the third inning by Chloe Wigington.
Then, suddenly, the GB offense exploded for eight runs and eight hits in the final two innings. But it may have been a fatal error by the Dutch coaches that allowed most of that to happen.
Kirsten Mack and Georgina Corrick opened the bottom of the seventh inning with line drive singles to left field. What was a couple of baserunners when the Dutch still had that 5-0 lead? Nevertheless, the Dutch coaches decided that Ilona Andringa had done enough and brought in Quincey Catsburg to mop up.
The first batter that Quincey Catsburg faced was Emma Bridge, and she hit a little pop fly back to the pitcher. And GB were now down at the bottom of their batting order.
But Catsburg hit Chloe Wigington with a pitch to load the bases. Then she walked Amie Hutchison on a 3-2 count to force in GB's first run. But what was a run when the Dutch still had a 5-1 lead – especially after Lucy Hall struck out swinging for the second out.
That brought GB back to the top of the line-up and lead-off hitter Hayley D'Avilar, a player who slaps and bunts – but occasionally does something else. In this case, it was something else – a booming drive that sailed over the head of a very startled Dutch right fielder Brenda Beers and rolled all the way to the fence with a flock of GB runners tearing around the bases. And that included Hayley D'Avilar, the fastest player on the GB Team, who made it home easily for the most unexpected of inside-the-park home runs. And as the GB supporters went crazy, the scoreboard said that the score was now 5 to 5.
More heroics
Improbably, GB had tied the game. Could they win it? It seemed completely possible when the next batter, Keeli Waugh, ripped a double down the left field line and GB's best hitter, Lauren Evans, was coming to the plate.
And Lauren came through, driving a hard single into left field. Keeli Waugh rounded third and headed for home and 17-year-old Dutch left fielder Damishah Charles, the star of last summer's European Under-16 Championships, fired the ball towards home. Only a perfect throw was going to get Keeli, and that's exactly what the Dutch got. Though there was some controversy about whether Dutch catcher Gabi Obia haad blocked home plate without the ball, the fact was that one of the best throws you'll ever see in a pressure situation beat the runner, and as Keeli slid hard into the catcher, Gabi Obia hung on to the ball.
The eighth inning
And so the game moved to the eighth inning, where the tiebreaker rule comes into effect, with a runner placed on second base at the start of each team's at-bat. To keep themselves in the game, a team needs to at least get that runner home. For a good chance of winning, a second run is invaluable. And the Dutch got both.
Damishah Charles's double to right field drove in the tie-break runner with one out, and after the Dutch loaded the bases with two outs, Dutch clean-up hitter Manda Weijgertse, who had driven in two runs in the top of the seventh on a little bloop base hit, did it again, dropping a little fly ball just behind shortstop and driving in Damishah Charles.
So the Dutch were back on top 7-5. Was it all going to be an anti-climax for GB?
By this time, the GB Team was in no mood to give up without another fight. And the Dutch made the mistake of leaving a shell-shocked Quincey Catsburg in to pitch.
Lauren Evans was the tiebreak runner on second, and she scored immediately on Kirsten Mack's single to left field. But when Georgina Corrick popped up to the catcher and Emma Bridge popped up to second base, GB hopes were running out.
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Until, that is, Chloe Wigington revived them by slashing a double that just eluded the Dutch centre fielder and drove Kirsten Mack to third. And that brought Amie Hutchison to the plate.
Amie's experience at this level, especially as a hitter, is very limited. Up to this point in the game, she had struck out twice and drawn an important walk in the seventh inning. She had swung at pitches over her head and hadn't put bat to ball.
But now, Amie took ball one and drove the next pitch on a line into right field. Kirsten Mack scored and this time the throw from the outfield was nowhere near stopping Chloe Wigington from crossing home plate with the winning run.
And pandemonium reigned as the GB Team shook hands with the shocked Dutch and then ran to their families and supporters.
Whatever happens in the rest of this tournament, or in the rest of their softball careers, no player -- or coach -- on this GB Junior Team will ever forget this game.
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Drooping Dutch
For the Dutch, on the other hand, it's been 24 hours they would dearly like to forget. On Wednesday night, the hitherto undefeated Dutch held a 2-0 lead against Italy and lost 3-2 in the seventh inning. This afternoon, the Dutch and the Czechs were scoreless through six-and-a-half innings, and then the Czechs manufactured a 1-0 win in the bottom of the seventh. And tonight came what the Dutch will see as an extraordinary collapse against a GB Team that refused to give in, a result that left all the Dutch players in tears – but none more so than Quincey Catsburg.
The last time a Dutch team lot three straight games in a European Championship is maybe never?
“The lesson from this game,” GB Head Coach Rachael Watkeys told the team afterwards, “is to never, ever give up. And I hope you now believe in what we can in the rest of this tournament, because we believe in you.”
Playoff results
With just a few games left to be completed on Friday in the Championship playoff, here are the results so far:
GB 11, Lithuania 0 (4 innings)
Netherlands 13, Belgium 0 (4 innings)
Italy 9, France 6
Czech Republic 9, Russia 0 (5 innings)
Italy 18, Belgium 0 (3 innings)
Netherlands 21, France 0 (3 innings)
Czech Republic 10, Lithuania 0 (4 innings)
GB 9, Russia 2 (5 innings)
France 8, Belgium 3
Italy 3, Netherlands 2
Russia 18, Lithuania 0 (3 innings)
Czech Republic 6, GB 0
Czech Republic 1, Netherlands 0
GB 7, France 0 (5 innings)
Italy 2, Russia 1
GB 8, Netherlands 7 (8 innings)
Russia 7, France 0 (6 innings)
Italy 9, Czech Republic 0 (5 innings)
At this stage, Italy has not lost in the playoff round, GB has lost once (to the Czechs) and the Czechs have lost once (to Italy), while the Netherlands and Russia have lost three games each. They play Friday morning at 9.00 am and the winner will be the fourth-placed team in the Page playoff.
If GB were to beat Italy on Friday afternoon, then GB, Italy and the Czechs would be tied on results and runs conceded would determine the placings.
GB v France
The GB Under-19 Team may have lost this morning to the Czech Republic (a report on that game is below), but their 7-0 mercy rule win over France this afternoon guaranteed the team a place in the tournament's final four.
Even if GB finishes in fourth place, it will mark the best-ever performance by a GB Junior Team at a European Championship. And they won this game in style, as Emma Bridge threw a solid and efficient no-hitter against France while GB slowly accumulated enough runs to end the game after five innings, with Lucy Hall driving in the decisive seventh run on her second hit of the day.
Solid pitching
Emma Bridge picked up her fourth win of the tournament with a minimum of fuss. The first French batter in the game reached on an error, and Emma walked the lead-off hitter in the top of the fifth. Otherwise, no other French batter reached base. The French were getting their bat on the ball (there were only four French strikeouts), but to no very good effect. Only one out was recorded in the outfield; mainly, the French were hitting ground balls and pop-ups that the GB infield dealt with easily.
The outstanding defensive play for GB was a full-stretch diving catch of a foul pop-up by GB catcher Kirsten Mack in the French second inning. Everything else was pretty much routine.
Patience
French pitcher Andrea Muselet threw the ball very slowly, and her delivery was painfully slow as well, so the biggest risk for GB hitters was being bored to death before they could actually get something to hit. In addition, GB hitters were having to adjust from the high-speed deliveries they saw this morning from Czech pitcher Veronika Peckova.
As a result, GB never really overpowered Muselet, but they did score runs in every inning – two in the first, two in the second, one in the third and two in the fourth.
In the first inning, a single by Keeli Waugh, an error and a sacrifice fly by Kirsten Mack brought in one run and third base player Georgina Corrick singled in another.
In the second inning, Lucy Hall singled to right field, Hayley D'Avilar reached on a bunt single, Keeli Waugh sacrificed the runners to second and third and Lauren Evans drove in both with a single to left field.
Walks to Amie Hutchison and Lucy Hall in the GB third inning and another sacrifice bunt by Keeli Waugh eventually led to Amie Hutchison scoring just before the French got the third out on a tag play.
And in the bottom of the fourth inning, Kirsten Mack and Georgina Corrick led off the inning wih singles, Kirsten scored on a groundout by Emma Bridge and Georgina came in when Lucy Hall dropped a single into short right field.
That took the score to the mercy rule threshold of 7-0, and when Emma Bridge set down the French in the top of the fifth inning, GB's place in the Page Playoff was secure.
Tonight, GB plays the Netherlands at 6.00 pm and will take on the Italy tomorrow (Friday) at 1.30 pm, but GB is in the final four regardless of those results.
GB v Czech Republic
The five-game winning streak posted by the GB Under-19 Women's Fastpitch Championships in Holland came to an end on Thursday morning when GB lost 6-0 to the Czech Republic in the last game of the second round-robin stage.
The loss meant that GB finished as runner-up in second-round Group F, behind the Czechs but ahead of Russia and Lithuania.
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Tough pitching
GB came up against a pitcher in this game – the Czechs' Veronika Peckova – who threw harder and with more control than anything they had seen so far in the tournament, and the GB offense, which has been the strength of the team over the first five games, struggled to cope with her.
GB managed just three hits against Peckova after averaging over 10 hits in their previous five games, and 11 of GB's 21 outs came on strikeouts. Britain managed to get runners on second and third base in both the fourth and sixth innings, but never really looked likely to score.
Meanwhile, the Czechs managed five hits off GB's 15-year-old starting pitcher Georgina Corrick, who threw the first five innings. The Czechs scored one run in the second inning and two more in the third after beginning each inning with a lead-off double.
Fourteen-year-old Niamh Walker pitched the last two innings for GB and gave up three more runs on three hits as GB began to look towards the two more games they will play later today.
The scoring
Both teams went down quickly in the first inning, but the Czechs broke through in the top of the second. Clean-up hitter Apolena Vyborna led off the inning with a fly ball double down the left field line, moved to third on Sabina Vitkova's sacrifice bunt and scored on a ground ball to shortstop, just beating the throw from Keeli Waugh to Kirsten Mack.
In the top of the third inning, Denisa Huskova got things started for the Czechs with a fly ball double to right field. Veronika Klimplova reached on a bunt single, and both runners scored when Nicol Tabackova hit a change-up over the head of Gabry Sassoli in left field. The Czechs now led 3-0.
GB's first chance came in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out, Lauren Evans hit a pop fly double down the left field line, GB's first hit, and Kirsten Mack was hit by a pitch. Both runners moved up on Veronika Pekova's only wild pitch of the game. But Georgina Corrick struck out swinging and Emma Bridge flied out to left field.
GB's other chance, in the sixth inning, began when Keeli Waugh drew a one-out walk. After Lauren Evans flied out to centre field, Kirsten Mack drove a single just inside the third base line, and when Czech left fielder Denisa Huskova failed to pick up the ball cleanly, Keeli moved to third and Kirsten to second. But Niamh Walker, who had entered the game in the top of the sixth and was batting in Georgina Corrick's spot, struck out.
By this time, the score had moved to 4-0 after the Czechs had picked up a run in the top of the sixth inning against the slower pitching of Niamh Walker, and they added two more in the top of the seventh on a two-RBI triple to left field by Apolena Vyborna.
But as results later in the day showed, this setback did little to dent GB's momentum.
Tournament Notes
Support for GB Teams at tournaments overseas from parents, friends and other relatives is always good, but at this tournament it's been exceptional, with over 30 supporters of various kinds in attendance.
It gives the GB players something like a home crowd, and while the GB supporters may not bang drums and blow vuvuzuelas like fans from some other countries (after all, they're British!), hey do provide much-appreciated support for the team, and especially for players who are a long way from home.
However, GB shortstop Keeli Waugh has a cheering section all on her own, as her parents plus four sisters and her young brother are here – including GB Women's Team player Kori Waugh.
Photos by Simon Mortimer