by Bob Fromer
Utrecht, Netherlands – Losing 16-1 to Japan on Monday was not entirely unexpected for the GB Women's Fastpitch Team, but losing 17-1 on Wednesday to the Czech Republic on the eve of the World Championships that start on Friday in Haarlem was not what the team expected or wanted.
GB gave all three of their pitchers a run-out, and the Czechs scored on all of them the first time they saw them. The best performance was probably that turned in by starter Kori Waugh, who gave up four runs in the top of the first inning, but followed that up with two scoreless frames.
When Kori left the game, GB had reduced the deficit to 4-1, on a single by Alicja Wolny and then a vicious line drive triple to the left field corner by Chiya Louie in the bottom of the third inning.
Although GB batters hit the ball hard at times off the first two Czech pitchers – starter Lucie Zappova and then Petra Kricklacova, each of whom pitched three innings – a lot of those hits went straight to Czech fielders. And the Czechs gave GB no help whatsoever as they played errorless softball and did not give up a walk.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Czechs brought in Viktoria Peckova to finish the game, the pitcher who recently led the Czech Under-19 Team to the European Junior Championship, and she struck out two of the three GB hitters she faced.
Helping hand
GB, on the other hand, gave the Czechs plenty of assistance, with four errors that led to 10 unearned runs. But the GB pitchers did themselves no favours by issuing eight walks to go with the 14 hits the Czechs recorded (GB had six).
Keeli Waugh came in to pitch the fourth inning for GB and gave up four runs – but only one earned run – in her one inning of work. Carling Hare pitched the final three innings and gave up three runs in the fifth inning and six runs in the seventh, though only two of those nine runs were earned.
But though errors at key points opened the floodgates for all those unearned runs, it couldn't have happened if the GB pitchers hadn't allowed a lot of Czech hitters to reach base via hits or walks.
As far as the GB offense was concerned, Alicja Wolny had two singles and Chiya Louie had a double and a triple, but the bottom five hitters in the GB order contributed just a one hit, a single by Steph Pearce in the second inning.
Leave it behind
What the GB Team will have to do now is leave this game behind them and start fresh against Botswana in their first game at the World Championships at 2.00 pm on Friday afternoon.
This is essentially the same GB Team that did so well in the European Championships last summer (including beating the Czechs), and they are better than their performances against Japan and the Czech Republic over the last few days would suggest.
But they are going to have to play much better in every facet of the game to show their potential.