by Bob Fromer
Haarlem, Netherlands – The GB Women's Fastpitch Team gave the United States a good fight late on Monday night after a rain-affected day at the ISF Women's World Championships. Kori Waugh pitched a brave game for GB but was eventually let down by her defense in a four-inning 11-0 USA win.
The main story on Monday, however, was rain. The forecast had been bad ever since the tournament began on 15 August, but while there had been rain at night and occasional rain during the day, the tournament schedule hadn't really been delayed. That changed on Monday when a mix of sun, wind and frequent heavy downpours saturated the fields, totally disrupted the schedule and forced three of the day's eight games to be cancelled and moved to early Tuesday morning.
The GB v USA game, originally scheduled to start at 3.00 o'clock, didn't begin until seven hours later, around 10.00 pm.
The organisers also made an understandable decision to break sequence and play the Netherlands v Australia game as the last game of the night, which kicked Canada v China, the next game in line after GB/USA, to 8.00 am on Tuesday morning. Since both teams had to get up around 6.00 am to get ready for the game, neither team was happy.
But with more rain in the forecast, the organisers want to get the tournament back on schedule as soon as possible, hopefully completing all games left over from Monday before GB and Italy play the first scheduled game on Tuesday at 11.30 am.
Brave pitching
GB Head Coach Hayley Scott made several line-up changes for the game against the ever-powerful USA, some as a result of minor injuries. Amy Moore started at catcher in place of Steph Pearce, Keeli Waugh took Amy's place in left field, Chiya Louie moved from shortstop to third base, Tahli Moore started at shortstop for the first time, and Sarah Jones returned to second base.
And Kori Waugh, who has pitched in relief in every game in the tournament so far, started against the intimidating USA line-up in place of Carling Hare.
Kori was an outfielder for most of her college career and only an occasional pitcher. But knowing GB would need her to pitch this summer, she trained hard for much of this year and then pitched in the Italian league this summer for Nuoro in Sardinia to get ready for the World Championships.
On Sunday night, she pitched well against Australia, giving up only three runs. On Monday night, against the USA, Kori pitched a very brave game, despite having the strike zone squeezed hard on her by Italian umpire Gianluca Magnani so that she was virtually forced to throw the ball down the middle to get a strike.
And throwing the ball down the middle to a team like USA is not recommended.
However, while it was definitely a tough strike zone, the home plate umpire wasn't entirely responsible for the eight walks that Kori gave the Americans in four innings, which tends to be her Achilles heel as a pitcher.
Escapology
But after a first inning in which Kori walked three and the Americans put five runs on the board – a three-run home run by Samantha Fischer was the big hit – Kori found ways to wriggle out of trouble.
The USA only scored once in the second inning despite two hits and a walk, thanks to a force out at the plate and two strikeouts. They wouldn't have scored at all if the umpires hadn't decided that GB shortstop Tahli Moore had committed obstruction on Kelsey Stewart at second base on a play on which GB eventually got her out in a rundown between third and home.
In the third inning, the USA had two on and two out with no runs scored when Kelsey Stewart lofted a fly ball into short centre field. Because the GB outfielders had to play deep against the American hitters, centre fielder Karlene Headley-Cooper had a long way to come to get to the ball – but she got there. And then failed to hold on to the catch as two runs scored.
The next batter, Hallie Wilson, walked, and then Samantha Fischer hit a fly ball to deep centre field. Karlene drifted back towards the fence, got under it, waited – and dropped this one as well as two more runs scored. Karlene is normally the most sure-handed of outfielders; this was simply an aberration. But those two runs made the score 10-0 and it became 11-0 when Kori Waugh gave up the only hit of the inning – a double by Michelle Moultrie that scored Sam Fischer. All five runs in the inning were unearned.
No offense
The Americans were always going to win the game, however, because the GB offense couldn't make any impression against hard-throwing lefthander Sara Nevins, who pitched the first three innings, or Jackie Traina, who pitched the fourth.
There were some good at-bats by GB hitters, but the only GB hit was an infield single in the second inning by Tahli Moore, and she was thrown out moments later trying to steal second. Six of the 12 GB batters went down on strikeouts.
Moving on
So the GB Team will need to pick themselves up once again and move on in what is – and was always going to be – a tough tournament. Today (Tuesday) they play Italy, on Wednesday it's the Netherlands in the feature game at 8.00 pm and on Thursday GB will finish the round-robin portion of the tournament with a game against Chinese Taipei.
With their four losses to date, GB have no chance of making the Championship playoffs, but will compete in the Consolation playoffs that begin on Friday morning. At that point, GB will need to win to keep playing.
Elsewhere
Full results from the tournament so far and the pool standings after Day 4 of the tournament are below. And there continue to be some surprising results, such as the Czech Republic defeating China on Sunday, then losing to previously winless Russia on Monday morning before the rains set in.
The Netherlands, not unexpectedly, lost again on Monday night to Australia, and their record is now 1-3. But if they can beat the Dominican Republic, GB and Botswana in their last three games, they will still make the playoffs.
Botswana, as expected, has lost three games after their opening win against GB on Friday. But the fact that they lost only 7-0 to the USA on Saturday and 6-0 to Italy on Monday tends to confirm that they are an unexpectedly good team and that the win over GB was not a fluke result.
Meanwhile, Japan, the USA, Australia and Canada sail on undefeated towards the playoffs. But Japan v Canada and USA v Australia are pool games still to come.
Results
Scores so far in the tournament are:
Pool A
Day 1
Japan 4, China 0
Canada 3, Puerto Rico 2
Czech Republic 6, Cuba 3
New Zealand 5, Russia 1
Day 2
China 1, Puerto Rico 0
Japan 5, Russia 0
Cuba 1, New Zealand 0
Canada 8, Czech Republic 1
Day 3
Cuba 5, Russia 3
Japan 9, Puerto Rico 2
Czech Republic 2, China 0
Canada 8, New Zealand 1 (5 innings)
Day 4
Russia 3, Czech Republic 0
Japan 9, New Zealand 0 (5 innings)
Canada v China (postponed to Tuesday)
Cuba v Puerto Rico (postponed to Tuesday)
Pool B
Day 1
Australia 2, Chinese Taipei 1
Italy 3, Dominican Republic 2
Botswana 5, GB 3
USA 10, Netherlands 0 (5 innings)
Day 2
USA 7, Botswana 0 (5 innings)
Chinese Taipei 5, Netherlands 4 (11 innings)
Dominican Republic 14, GB 6 (5 innings)
Australia 10, Italy 0 (4 innings)
Day 3
Dominican Republic 11, Botswana 1 (4 innings)
Australia 9, GB 0 (5 innings)
Netherlands 8, Italy 0 (5 innings)
USA 5, Chinese Taipei 1
Day 4
Italy 6, Botswana 0
USA 11, GB 0 (4 innings)
Australia 4, Netherlands 0
Dominican Republic v Chinese Taipei (postponed to Tuesday)
Pool Standings after Day 4
The first four teams in each pool will qualify for playoffs.
Pool A
Japan (4-0)
Canada (3-0)
Cuba (2-1)
Czech Republic (2-2)
China (1-2)
New Zealand (1-3)
Russia (1-3)
Puerto Rico (0-3)
Pool B
USA (4-0)
Australia (4-0)
Dominican Republic (2-1)
Chinese Taipei (1-2)
Italy (2-2)
Netherlands (1-3)
Botswana (1-3)
GB (0-4)
Photos by Lynda Medwell