By Bob Fromer
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Clearwater, Florida, USA: 20 July – It’s hot with a chance of thunderstorms here on the west coast of Florida as a record 26 teams, including the European champion GB Under-19 Women’s Fastpitch team, gather for the 2017 WBSC Junior Women’s Fastpitch World Championship.
Players and staff mostly arrived in Florida yesterday, and the next four days before the tournament starts will be hectic, with two training sessions and five scrimmage games to pack in before the tournament kicks off on Monday.
Training and games
Today, after a morning training session, the GB Juniors will play a scrimmage game against South Africa – coached by long-time GB Women’s Team Head Coach Hayley Scott!
On Friday, there will be another morning training session, followed by an afternoon game against the Philippines.
Although a core of nine players have returned from last year’s GB Under-19 Team, which went undefeated in winning the European Junior Championship in Spain, the training sessions will still be the only chance the team will have to integrate five new players into defensive and offensive systems.
And of course the coaching staff is new this year as well, so the coaches and players will need to work closely together to get on the same page.
But scrimmage games are there to let the players and coaches smooth off the rough edges in the heat of battle, and so on Saturday the team will play a doubleheader against a strong local travel ball team, the Tampa Mustangs.
And on Sunday, the GB Team will finish preparations for the tournament with a game against no less than Japan.
All this comes with a caveat of “weather permitting”, since thunderstorms are in the forecast for every day in the foreseeable future! This is why the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays have stadiums with roofs!
The tournament
The usual formula for WBSC Junior World Championships in the past has tended to be two first-round groups of eight, with the top four – or 50% of teams in the pool – going forward to Championship playoffs.
This year, with 26 teams, the WBSC Softball Division has opted for a much tougher formula – four opening-round groups of six or seven teams, with only the top two – so 33% or 29% in a seven-team group -- going through to Championship playoffs, and the remaining 14 teams playing out the tournament in various placing brackets.
While this format won’t bother the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia etc, who will expect to go forward from the opening round, it’s tough on middle-ranked teams with aspirations, like the GB Juniors and other European teams.
GB came into the tournament seeded 14th (although they finished 13th two years ago at the Junior World Championship in Oklahoma City and their play deserved a higher placing), and so to get out of the first round group here in Clearwater, they can probably only afford to lose one game in a six-team Pool D that includes Canada, China, Mexico and Korea as well as Ireland.
That’s a tough assignment, and it strikes some observers as unfair. Teams like GB in other groups will have similar feelings. Italy will probably have to beat the USA or Chinese Taipei to get out of Pool A; the Dutch will probably have to beat Japan or Australia to get out of Pool B; and the Czech Republic will probably have to beat two out of New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to make the Championship playoffs out of Pool C.
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First round pools
Below is the complete list of first round pools, with seedings/rankings coming in to the Junior World Championship. Unranked teams have not competed previously in Women or Junior World Championships.
POOL A
No. 2 USA
No. 9 Chinese Taipei
No. 12 Italy
No. 17 Philippines
No. 20 Guatemala
South Africa
Turkey
POOL B
No. 1 Japan
No. 4 Australia
No. 8 Netherlands
No. 11 Brazil
No. 21 Peru
No. 37 Israel
Bahamas
POOL C
No. 5 New Zealand
No. 7 Puerto Rico
No. 13 Czech Republic
No. 24 Dominican Republic
No. 30 Argentina
India
POOL D
No. 3 Canada
No. 6 China
No. 10 Mexico
No. 14 Great Britain
No. 26 Korea
No. 31 Ireland
Players and staff
The GB players and staff for this tournament are:
PLAYERS
Hannah Burge
Katie Burge
Ashleigh Carolan
Georgina Corrick
Saskia Davies
Beth Fleming
Laura Hirai
Andrea Johnson
Lauren King
Olivia Lee
Casey Moritz
Megan Parno
Chelsie Robison
Alana Snow
Kyra Watson
STAFF
Head Coach: Rachael Watkeys
Assistant Coach: Robbie Robison
Pitching Coach: Lindsey Meadows
Physiotherapist: Kirsten Leal
Team Manager: James Hirai