Putting a national softball team together a week before a major competition, including players that the coaches and their teammates are meeting for the first time, may not be the ideal way to prepare for international success. But that's the way the GB Women's Fastpitch Team has had to operate ever since 1997, when the team first became a mix of GB-based and overseas-based players, and it's something that both GB coaches and players have become exceptionally good at.
So the team (minus three players currently playing in Junior World Championships in Canada for the GB Under-19s) assembled for the first this year on Friday 28 June at the Terminal 5 Travelodge at Heathrow Airport and had their first training sessions on Saturday at Richings Park.
And then they managed to look like a well-coordinated veteran team in an impressive 10-0 no-hit exhibition game win on Sunday 30 June against the London Angels (plus guest players) at Farnham Park.
GB dominant
With Angels' main pitcher Kylie Marshall now a member of the GB Team, US pitcher and pitching coach Katy Austin, who is in the UK this summer to teach pitching as part of a Sport-England supported fastpitch development programme, threw the first half of the game for the Angels, with GB Men's Team player Kenny Pregnell catching to try to control the GB Women's running game on the bases (in the event, there no steal attempts). Angels' European Cup pitcher Joke van der Hulst pitched the second half of the contest.
But it was the GB Team who dominated a game that was stretched to eight innings so that GB players could get as much game time as possible. Three GB pitchers – Carling Hare (three innings), Kylie Marshall (two innings) and Kori Waugh (three innings) combined to no-hit the Angels, who had only two baserunners on walks surrendered by Carling Hare – and one of those was gunned down by GB catcher Steph Pearce while trying to steal third.
In fact, the Angels didn't get a ball out of the infield – and the GB infield looked crisp in playing errorless softball, with Chiya Louie, familiar as a slowpitch player on the British scene but returning to her fastpitch roots, having a fine game at shortstop.
Carling Hare recorded five strikeouts in just three innings, while Kylie Marshall struck out one and Kori Waugh three.
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Barrage of hits
Meanwhile, the GB batting attack racked up 10 runs on 14 hits plus three walks and three Angels' errors, led by first base player Alicja Wolny, a new recruit to the team this year, who had a single, a double and a bases-loaded triple plus a sacrifice bunt in five trips to the plate, good for four RBIs.
Second base player Sarah Jones, a GB veteran, drove in three runs with a sacrifice fly and a pair of singles, and Laura Thompson, newcomer Sarah Craig and Chiya Louie had two hits each.
There will, of course, be much harder games to come in the European Championships and World Championship Qualifier that will start on Sunday 7 July in Prague, with the GB Team needing to finish in the top four to claim a place in next year's World Championships in the Netherlands.
Player turnover
This was nevertheless an impressive start for a GB Team that has seen many changes from the group that played in the World Championships last summer in Whitehorse, Canada, and it looks like some exceptional veteran players who retired after last summer may have found some worthy replacements both from Britain (Jenny Ball, Chiya Louie, Kylie Marshall and Susie Hall) and from overseas (Alicja Wolny, Sarah Craig, Kori and Keeli Waugh and Nicole Ratel – with Keeli and Nicole also playing for the GB Juniors in Canada).
The GB Team will train at Farnham Park during the first three days of this week, then fly out to Prague on Thursday. Their opening game will be against Germany, a key rival in their opening round-robin group, at 4.30 pm on Sunday 7 July.
GB will then play Denmark on 8 July and Israel and Russia on 9 July, and will need to finish in the top two of the five-team group to move on to playoffs which begin on Thursday 10 July.
You can follow all GB games on the BSF softball website: www.britishsoftball.org.
