by Bob Fromer
Rosmalen, Netherlands -- The GB Under-19 Women's Fastpitch Team wasn't expecting much resistance from Serbia in their opening game at the European Junior Championships, and they didn't get any, dispatching the Serbs with a crisp and powerful performance that got their tournament off to the best possible start.
Later in the day, however, after long delays caused by heavy rain saturated the fields, GB's second game against Belgium got under way but was suspended overnight when the rain returned in the top of the third inning with GB leading the Belgians 4-0.
That game will be resumed, probably on Tuesday morning, and GB is also scheduled to finish their group games by playing Germany, at this point scheduled for 1.30 pm. A third game may even be possible if the second round starts tomorrow as on the original schedule. But at this point everything is up in the air pending the weather and decisions by the tournament organisers.
GB v Belgium
The GB Under-19s came into their delayed game against Belgium full of confidence from the morning's win over Serbia (see below), but also conscious that the Belgians had unexpectedly beaten Germany earlier in the day by a score of 3-1 in a game shortened to five innings because of rain.
Andre Prins, one of Europe's best but also most notorious coaches, currently in charge of the Czech Republic's Senior Women and Under-22 teams, is moonlighting by coaching the Belgians at this tournament, and Andre always has a plan. Against the Germans, the plan was to bunt them to death, and the ploy succeeded as the Germans couldn't cope with the Belgian short game.
Against GB, the plan was pretty much the same, except that through the first two innings the GB infield dealt with the Belgian bunt attempts, and the Belgians struggled to place their bunts against the speed of GB starting pitcher Georgina Corrick.
Meanwhile, GB wasted no time putting runs on the board against Belgian starter Rubin Roef, who last summer was beating the GB Under-16 team at European Cadette Championships in the Czech Republic.
Rubin fared less well, however, against the GB Under-19s.
GB's lead-off hitter, centre fielder Hayley D'Avilar, worked the count to three-and-two, then drove a long triple over the head of Belgian right fielder Lisa van Raemdonck. Keeli Waugh lined out hard to shortstop, but then first base player Lauren Evans drove another long triple to right centre field, scoring Hayley, and Kirsten Mack's sacrifice fly to right field brought in Lauren. Georgina Corrick then doubled to right centre, but Chloe Wigington popped out to end the inning.
GB added two more runs in the bottom of the second inning for a 4-0 lead and drove Rubin Roef from the game. Designated player Emma Bridge led off the inning with GB's third triple, again to right centre field, and scored on Amy Trask's sacrifice fly to centre field. Sian Wigington's single spelled the end for Rubin Roef, and the Belgians brought Celine Janssens in to pitch. Hayley D'Avilar's sacrifice moved Sian to second, and she scored when Rubin Roef, now playing first base for Belgium, missed a throw on Keeli Waugh's grounder to short that should have been caught.
Georgina Corrick, in her first start for GB, set down the Belgians in the first two innings at the cost of just one hit, a bloop single over shortstop, and she struck out three.
In the top of the third inning, however, with a drizzle worsening into steady rain and the ball getting increasingly hard to the throw, Belgium put runners on first and third on a single, a sacrifice bunt and a dropped third strike that GB catcher Kirsten Mack couldn't get a grip on and threw into right field. And that's where the game was called, and where it will resume sometime tomorrow.
GB v Serbia
In Britain's first game of the tournament, played in the morning in dry conditions, GB exploded out of the gate in the top of the first inning with 13 runs on nine hits, plus three walks from two Serbian pitchers and two errors, one of which was the difference between GB scoring 13 runs instead of only six.
After that, GB pitchers Emma Bridge, who threw the first inning, and 14-year-old Niamh Walker, who pitched the next two, set all the Serbians they faced up and down in order for a three-inning no-hitter. Emma recorded swinging strikeouts against all three hitters in the first inning, and Niamh struck out two in two innings and didn't allow a ball out of the infield.
Power hitting
GB sent 17 batters to the plate in the top of the first inning, and the third out was only recorded when a GB runner deliberately left base early to bring the inning to a close.
After lead-off hitter Hayley D'Avilar was out on a very low called third strike to start the game, six of the next seven GB batters had hits. And while the first few were balls that just barely made it to the outfield, the hits got harder as GB hitters started to time the slow offerings of Serbian starter Katarina Karic.
GB left fielder Chloe Wigington hit a long drive to centre field with the bases loaded that probably should have been caught but wasn't, with all three runners scoring.
Had Chloe's hit been caught, it would have been the third out, and GB would only have scored six. But the inning went on, and when first base player Lauren Evans hit a vicious double to the fence in left centre, that was the end for Katarina Karic, who was replaced by Aleksandra Stojkovic.
But it didn't do the Serbians any good, as Kirsten Mack stroked a double to left, the next two batters walked, Emma Bridge got her second single of the inning and reached third on an error and a wild pitch, and finally GB Head Coach Rachael Watkeys brought the inning to an end by getting Emma to leave third early.
GB only managed single runs in the second and third innings as everyone on the roster got into the game, but the final run, scored in the top of the third by shortstop Keeli Waugh and driven in on a single by pitcher Niamh Walker, was enough to bring the mercy rule into effect after the Serbians batted in the bottom of the third.
Good start
The game was a good warm-up for a GB Team that has only trained together for a couple of days before coming to Holland, though a few more balls hit to GB fielders might have been useful.
But the GB players and coaches were happy with a very professional start that will probably have impressed the scouts watching from other contending teams.
GB's aim is to win all three games in the initial round-robin, top the group, and thus get marginally easier opponents in the second round -- and they are one-and-a-half games on the way to that target.
But tomorrow (Tuesday) could be hectic. The weather forecast for Tuesday and the rest of the week is good, but the organisers will be keen to make up games lost or suspended from today, and teams could find themselves playing a bunch of games in quick succession.
But GB should have the squad, and the pitchers, to take this in their stride.
Day 1 Results
Results of games completed during the rain-shortened first day of the tournament were:
Group A
Lithuania 7, Ukraine 0 (forfeit)*
Croatia 6, Lthuania 4 (suspended in the second inning)
* Ukraine has withdrawn from the tournament.
Group B
Russia 4, Spain 2
Russia 5, France 4 (suspended in the third inning)
Group C
GB 15, Serbia 0 (three innings)
Belgium 3, Germany 1
GB 4, Belgium 0 (suspended in the third inning)
Group D
Denmark 16, Israel 4 (four innings)
Italy 30, Denmark 0 (three innings)
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