By Bob Fromer
Rosmalen, Netherlands: 21 July – The GB Women’s Fastpitch Team suffered a first loss at the European Women’s Championships on Monday when they came up against Italy’s Greta Cecchetti, who gave up only one hit in an 8-0 Italian walk-off mercy rule victory in six innings.
GB’s pitching – three innings each by starter Georgina Corrick and then Carling Hare – was much better than the final scoreline sounds, but the GB offense was non-existent and the GB defense gave the Italians opportunities -- and the Azzuri pounced on all of them.
To make matters worse, GB may have lost one of their most productive hitters for the rest of the tournament after left fielder Amy Moore suffered what appears to be a dislocated shoulder during her at-bat in the top of the sixth inning. After a lengthy delay, Amy finished the at-bat, but had to come out of the game in the bottom of the sixth as her shoulder stiffened.
Tough adjustment
After several days of facing slow to medium pitching in scrimmage games and in their two wins at the start of the European Championships on Sunday, the GB Women found it tough against the veteran Cecchetti, who was the losing pitcher for Italians in the only game against them that GB has ever won – and that was back in 2006.
On Monday night, Cecchetti moved the ball up and down, changed speeds, and victimised a number of over-anxious GB hitters with an excellent rise ball. So apart from first base player Alicja Wolny’s line drive single to centre field with two out in the top of the first inning, GB hitters went up and down in order during the rest of the game.
And out of 19 GB hitters who came to the plate during the game, no less than 14 of them struck out, 12 of them swinging.
The erratic strike zone of home plate umpire Franck Lautier didn’t help the GB hitters, and it certainly didn’t help GB starter Georgina Corrick, as Lautier squeezed her on the corners and forced her to throw more balls than she would have wanted over the fat part of the plate. But there is no question that, on the night, Italy was the better team.
Near misses
Though the GB offense posed no threat during the game, Italy was only able to accumulate runs slowly until the very end of the contest, as Georgina Corrick battled hard to keep them in check and all the runs Italy scored against Carling Hare were unearned.
Towards the beginning of the game, there were some near-misses by a GB defense that initially looked sharp and solid – three key hits that GB fielders just failed to catch on very difficult plays.
Two of those came in the bottom of the first inning when Italy scored their first two runs. With one out, Priscilla Brandi’s soft line drive just tipped off the edge of second base player Amy Wells’s glove in short right field. And after GB cut down Brandi at second base on a sacrifice bunt attempt on an excellent play by Alicja Wolny, Erica Piancastelli’s long fly ball to the fence in left field just eluded Amy Moore for a triple, with Eva Trevisan coming in to score.
Beatrice Ricchi then slapped a double to left-centre, and the Italians, with a 2-0 lead, had all the runs that Greta Cecchetti would need.
Italy added one more run in the second inning when Andrea Montanari lofted a long fly ball to right centre field that kept on carrying and just tipped off the glove of GB centre fielder Hayley D’Avilar for another triple. Montanari then scored on a bunt by Elisa Grifagno.
In the bottom of the third inning, Georgina Corrick battled courageously to hold the Italians to just one more run after she walked four straight hitters in a frustrating sequence where the home plate umpire gave her nothing on any edge of the strike zone. The one run scored on a wild pitch, and this time Hayley D’Avilar ran down a long fly ball at the fence in centre field to end the inning. But Italy now had a 4-0 lead.
Errors
Carling Hare came in to pitch for GB as the Italians came to bat in the fourth inning, and set them down in order for the only time in the game.
In the bottom of the fifth, however, the GB defense, errorless until that point, began to crack. Erika Piancastelli, who had three extra-base hits on the night plus a walk, doubled to lead off the inning and took an extra base when the throw back to the infield got away. The next batter, Beatrice Ricchi, hit a towering pop-up behind home plate that drifted back towards the field as GB catcher Steph Pearce tried to get under it. When the ball finally came down, it bounced off Steph’s glove in fair territory and Piancastelli scored to give the Italians a 5-0 lead.
The game came to an abrupt halt in the bottom of the sixth inning. Carling Hare retired the first two Italian hitters on a strikeout and a ball hit back to the pitcher. Priscilla Brandi singled to left, but the inning appeared to be over when Eva Trevisan hit a bouncer to shortstop. However, Sarah Craig was unable to make the play, and that brought up the very dangerous Erika Piancastelli, who took a strike and then smashed the next ball miles over the left field fence for a three-run home run that took the score into mercy rule territory at 8-0 and ended the contest.
Looking ahead
The GB Women now have two wins and one loss in Pool D at these busy European Championships, with 20 teams and three fields in continual action, and one final pool game today against Greece at 1.45 pm Dutch time (one hour ahead of Britain). GB needs to win to ensure second place in the pool, which will take them into the first playoff round, and from what Greece has shown so far, a British win will be expected.
Eight teams – the first and second-placed teams from four round-robin groups – will go into this playoff round, and only two will be eliminated at the end of it. Assuming they beat Greece to get there, GB will play three games in this round – the first at 6.30 pm today against either Germany or Sweden and two more tomorrow against the Czech Republic and Russia. Two wins from those three games will guarantee a place in the next round, and one win might be enough.
The third playoff round, on Thursday and Friday morning, will reduce six teams to four, and those four teams will contest the Page Playoffs on Friday afternoon and Saturday.
But that’s looking too far ahead. Assuming GB can dispatch the Greeks, that first playoff round will present some tough opponents and some exciting games.
Twenty-three of the 29 pool games played during the first two days of the tournament have been mercy rule wins, which is always going to happen when countries from all over Europe, at all different levels, compete in one big Championship.
But games after the initial round-robin, at both the top and the bottom of the tournament, should be more closely contested.
Results
Results from pool play over the first two days of the tournament are:
POOL A
Germany 15, Denmark 0
Sweden 20, Israel 3
Netherlands 10, Germany 0
Netherlands 15, Israel 0
Sweden 14, Denmark 0
Germany 14, Israel 2
Netherlands 12, Sweden 0
POOL B
France 9, Croatia 1
Russia 2, Spain 1
France 9, Poland 2
Russia 14, France 1
Spain 8, Croatia 2
Russia 15, Poland 0
Spain 9, France 8 (10 inns)
Poland 10, Croatia 0
POOL C
Austria 16, Ireland 0
Czech Republic 15, Ukraine 1
Ukraine 10, Slovenia 0
Czech Republic 8, Slovenia 0
Austria 19, Slovenia 9
Ukraine 16, Ireland 2
Czech Republic 7, Austria 0
POOL D
GB 15, Slovakia 1
Italy 11, Switzerland 0
Greece 6, Slovakia 4
GB 5, Switzerland 1
Italy 20, Greece 0
Slovakia 8, Switzerland 7
Italy 8, GB 0