By Bob Fromer
Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy: 30 June – After their opening game win against Spain on Monday at the European Cadette Championships, the GB Under-16 Girls' Fastpitch Team came down to earth on Tuesday with mercy rule losses to Russia by 8-1 in the afternoon and to Italy by 10-0 in the evening.
In the afternoon game, 15-year-old Katherine Ryan, making her GB pitching debut, threw an excellent game against the defending European Under-16 champions Russia, but lapses behind her led to the 8-1 Russian win in five innings.
In the evening game against the host team Italy, with a noisy crowd cheering the Italians on, GB was overwhelmed in four innings by a flurry of Italian hits and aggressive Italian baserunning, Although the GB defense made fewer mistakes than they had against Russia, the Italians were still gifted four unearned runs, and had the good fortune that several of their nine base hits squirmed just out of the reach of British fielders. GB pitcher Niamh Walker deserved a slightly better fate, but the Italians rattled GB with their short game and teed off on some pitches the second and third times that Niamh went through their order.
So it was a tough day for GB, but not entirely unexpected.
While Russia, though 2-1, is not the force they were two years ago when they won this tournament (the Russians were blown out 13-1 by the Czech Republic immediately after defeating GB), the Italians are the real deal -- big, strong and fast. I would bet the house against anyone but Italy and the Czechs contesting Saturday's final. When the Italians met the Czechs in their pool game on Monday evening, the Czechs won 4-3, so there is not much between them.
Today's two losses give GB a 1-2 record in the tournament, and the goal remains a second win in their remaining two pool games that will give Great Britain a position in the Page Playoffs. GB will face the Czech Republic tomorrow and Belgium on Thursday, and the winner of the GB-Belgian game could be the team that makes the playoffs.
GB v Italy
GB actually had baserunners in all four innings against Italy, but could only manage two infield singles, by Alys Thomas and Laura Hirai, to go with two walks, a hit batter and an error. And GB lost three of their base runners on a caught stealing at third, a pick-off at first and an attempt to gain an extra base on Italy's sole error, so any chances GB had to score were scuppered by themselves as much as by the Italians.
GB batters also struck out five times against Italian starter Gloria D'Autorio, who pitched the first three innings, and reliever Carlotta Adorna, who pitched the fourth.
Meanwhile, the Italians started slowly, with just two runs in the first inning, and that inning would have been scoreless without a GB error. But then the Italians scored four in the second and four more in the third with base hits, stolen bases and every conceivable kind of bunt to every part of the infield, not to mention the odd hit driven to the outfield and, in the bottom of the third inning, a two-run inside-the-park home run by pinch hitter Marta Chiodaroli.
The onslaught might have been worse had not Jasmine Rushin made a fine running catch of a line drive headed to centre field off the bat of leadoff hitter Susannah Soldi and Alys Thomas not somehow caught up with a long fly ball to right field hit by Georgia Migliorini.
This was an Italian team with more speed, more power and much more experience than most of the GB players -- and that was reflected in the game and the result.
GB v Russia
But GB against Russia, in the afternoon, was a very different game. GB were not outclassed or overwhelmed -- but they did shoot themselves in the foot on defense.
The GB Under-16s are here with only 12 players, including two pitchers, both of whom also play positions in the field. So changing the pitcher – Niamh Walker pitched Monday's win over Spain and Katherine Ryan pitched today against Russia – meant changing defensive positions, and seven of the 10 GB players that started against Russia, including the DP, were playing different positions than they played against Spain.
That may have been part of the reason why GB committed seven errors in the four innings that Russia batted, leading to four of Russia’s eight runs being unearned and giving the GB offense a mountain to climb.
But, as in the win against Spain, GB also came up with a couple of outstanding team defensive plays. One of them saved a run in the first inning when, on a bunt with a runner on second, pitcher Katherine Ryan didn’t make the expected throw to first, but instead turned and caught the Russian runner rounding third. A rundown followed, with catcher Alana Snow applying the tag.
In the second inning, when the Russians took a 1-0 lead, further runs were saved when Niamh Walker, playing third base, speared a ground ball on the foul line and threw behind her to shortstop Laura Hirai, who made an outstanding catch and tag on the incoming runner at third.
Those were the good bits. But the bad bits were a number of throwing and catching errors in the infield that made the game easier for Russia than it should have been.
Katherine Ryan gave up five hits, walked only one, hit two Russian batters and had one strikeout. But only a couple of balls were hit hard – a double by Russian DP Yulia Maslova in the third inning and a deep fly ball triple by catcher Maria Gudym in the fourth -- and Katherine spent most of the game getting the Russians to hit balls that the GB defense could have dealt with. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t….
After a scoreless first inning, the Russians scored one run (unearned) in the second inning, four more (two unearned) in the third and a final three runs (one unearned) in the fourth.
So this could and should have been a much closer game.
Lone run
GB’s only run came in the top of the fifth inning when the Russians had built up an 8-0 lead and two runs were needed to stave off the mercy rule and prolong the game. As they had done on Monday night in an unexpectedly tight 4-2 win over Belgium, the Russians started to kick the ball around in the final inning, but GB could not quite take enough advantage.
With one out, Mary Racz reached on an error by Russian shortstop Mariia Petkovich and went to third on a bunt by Niamh Walker that Russian pitcher Aleksan Shchefetnova misplayed, giving GB runners on first and third. GB Head Coach Jeremy Thomas then called a double steal and the Russians threw out Niamh Walker at second while allowing Mary Racz to score. Marlia Van’t Sant followed with a single up the middle – only GB’s second hit -- but was then caught off first on a pick-off for the last out of the game.
So the final verdict was not enough hitting against a good but not overpowering Russian pitcher, and too many gifts to the Russian offense that prolonged innings and gave away runs.
But this is a GB team with a mix of experienced and inexperienced players and every game in a tournament like this is a learning experience. As Jeremy Thomas told the players afterwards, heads didn’t drop after mistakes and the team never really lost composure and those were positives the team can build on.
Here come the Czechs
The 4-3 win by the Czechs over Italy on Monday evening raised some eyebrows, but today's 13-1 blowout of the Russians -- the Czechs scored 11 runs in the top of the first inning -- was a real eye-opener. It's probably a mistake to generalise, but the balance of power in European softball may be shifting towards Prague.
The Czechs won last year's European Junior Championships for the very first time. Their Cadettes may win here in Nuoro. The Czech Senior Team did well at last summer's World Championships in Holland. For the first time in memory, the Czechs have a dominant young pitcher, Viktoria Petcova, who pretty much won them their Junior Championship single-handed.
Meanwhile, the Dutch have lost funding and haven't even sent a Cadette team here and are not sending a Junior team to the Junior World Championships in Oklahoma in August.
So the times may be a-changin....
Results
Results in the tournament through Tuesday are:
MONDAY
GB 6, Spain 0
Russia 4, Belgium 2
Czech Republic 4, Italy 3
TUESDAY
Belgium 5, Spain 0
Russia 8, GB 1
Czech Republic 13, Russia 1
Italy 10, GB 0