By Bob Fromer
Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy: 3 July – The GB Under-16 Girls’ Fastpitch Team made a valiant effort to grab a medal today at the European Cadette Championships, but an injury to pitcher Niamh Walker followed by some mental and physical errors led to a 5-0 Russian playoff game victory.
The result means that GB’s tournament is over and the team will have to settle for fourth place, which is a reasonable achievement considering the mix of ages and experience in the GB squad. In the end, GB beat the two teams that were more or less on their level, including a Belgian team with much more experience and preparation.
And the fourth place finish is GB’s highest ever in this competition, which goes back to 2002.
Russia remains alive in the tournament and will play tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon against the Czech Republic, who lost 2-0 to Italy this evening. Italy goes straight to tomorrow evening’s final and will be joined in the final by the winner of the game between Russia and the Czech Republic. Both of tomorrow’s playoff games, and the fifth place game between Belgium and Spain, will be webtreamed on http://www.playo.tv/event/9-Mistrovstvi-Evropy-junioru-1622.aspx.
The first game tomorrow, Russia v Czech Republic, will begin at 12.30 pm British time and the final is scheduled to start at 6.30 pm in the UK.
Close battle
GB was giving Russia a real battle today until the quad injury that Niamh Walker was carrying gave way in the fourth inning. Niamh battled through that inning and on into the fifth, but the injury was getting worse, the Russians were taking advantage with a succession of bunts, and the GB defense cracked under pressure.
Russia scored two runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth, and that was far more than they needed.
When Niamh was finally removed from the game with two outs in the fifth inning (“I just couldn’t pitch any more,” she said afterwards), she received a well-deserved round of applause from everyone in the crowd; she has been one of the better pitchers in the tournament and has a bright softball future ahead of her.
Even so, it took a lucky bloop base hit with two out in top of the fourth inning, a ball that just eluded GB second base player Jasmine Rushin and landed inches inside the right field foul line, to break a scoreless tie and finally put the Russians on the front foot.
During the first three innings, by contrast, Russia had had just one baserunner on a bunt base hit and not a sniff of a run as Niamh Walker struck out six of the first 10 batters she faced.
No offense
On the other hand, GB also had only one baserunner over the first three innings, on a walk to Laura Hirai in the bottom of the first – and that was the only baserunner GB had at all, as Russian pitcher Yulia Maslova pitched the first no-hit game of the tournament. As one of the GB parents said afterwards, “You can’t win if you can’t score”.
In fact, offense has been GB’s problem throughout the competition, and 13 hits in six games tells its own story. The wins over Spain and Belgium came courtesy of Niamh Walker’s pitching and opponents’ errors. GB scored nine runs in their six games, but only two were earned and GB batters had only two RBIs, one of them on the bases-loaded walk to Katherine Ryan that gave GB their walk-off win against Belgium on Thursday. The only run driven in during the tournament on a GB hit came on a single to centre field by Annecy Stevens in the first game against Spain. GB’s team batting average over the six games was .131.
What this reflects, of course, is not enough competition experience on the part of some of the GB-based players, and not enough games against the kind of pitching they faced here in Nuoro. And while most of the overseas-based players have certainly seen this kind of pitching and played at this level before, it could be that some of them were pressing, trying to carry the offense. Or maybe six games is just a small sample size….
Mistakes
It wasn’t the lucky bloop base hit in the fourth inning that gave the Russians their first run – it was what happened after that ball hit the ground. Yulia Maslova was only on first base when the ball was hit by Russian shortstop Mariia Petkovich, but when GB right fielder Marlia Van’t Sant retrieved the ball, she hesitated about where to throw it – and Maslova never stopped running. By the time the ball got back to the infield, Maslova had opened the scoring and Petkovich was on second base.
Petkovich then scored after trying to steal third, when the throw from catcher Alana Snow sailed wide of the base and was contained but not caught cleanly by shortstop Laura Hirai.
Niamh Walker tried to continue in the fifth inning, but the quad injury was clearly affecting her pitching mechanics and reducing her speed. Even so, Russia had two runners on base with bunt singles and two were out when Viktoria Dolganova hit a ground ball towards second base that could have ended the inning. Instead, the ball was misplayed and two runs scored, and Dolganova came home when Yana Islamova hit another ball to second base and beat the throw to first.
Katherine Ryan relieved Niamh Walker at that point, but only had to throw one pitch, because Alana Snow gunned down Islamova trying to steal by a good five feet.
Katherine Ryan did get to throw in the top of the sixth inning, and set the Russians down in order on just five pitches on a fly ball to centre and two grounders back to her in the circle.
Learning experience
Every team and every player plays to win, because that’s what sport is about – at least in part. But at this age level, these kinds of tournaments – which most GB softball players get to experience far too rarely – are also about learning what they need to do to get better. That was the message from GB Under-16 Head Coach Jeremy Thomas in the team de-brief immediately after the game.
It won’t have been the skill levels here that will have surprised some of the less-experienced GB players; they have seen those skills and more among the older male and female players they play with and against in the Great Britain Fastpitch League. But the speed, intensity and aggression that allowed some of GB’s opponents to take advantage of every mistake may have been the real shock, and the lesson that will need to be taken away.
And – how to lay off the rise ball!
Tomorrow, the GB Team can finally be tourists in Nuoro (where there is not a lot to see), then they will probably watch the final and will fly back to the UK on Sunday morning. The weather here has been hot in the day, but blessedly cool in the evening, and the Mediterranean light under mostly pure blue skies has been exhilarating, especially as warm evening sunshine falls on the mountains that backdrop the town. Some bones can be picked with the tournament organisers and some of the umpiring has been interesting, but the Italians have been good hosts and Team Manager Sarah Rushin has ensured that all the logistics have been smooth.
Four of the players from this team – Niamh Walker, Alana Snow, Laura Hirai and Annecy Stevens – will be joining the GB Under-19s in Oklahoma City in less than a month for the WBSC Junior World Championships.
Nuoro has been fun, and another step in the process of taking GB Softball forward.