By Bob Fromer
Rosmalen, Netherlands: 22 July – The bad news is that the GB Women’s Fastpitch Team lost two games, to the Czech Republic and Russia, at the European Women’s Championships in Holland today. The good news is – they’re still through to the second playoff round.
This morning’s loss, by 10-1 to the Czech Republic in six innings, was caused in part by the loss of two players to injury and illness in the pre-game warm-up, which forced Head Coach Hayley Scott to revise her line-up and the team to try – unsuccessfully as things turned out -- to make adjustments.
A full report on this game is below.
The 11-0 four-inning loss to Russia in the evening game was a different story. GB had all their players available, sent out the line-up they wanted, and just didn’t play very well. The luck was also with the Russians: every ball they hit seemed to find a hole whereas GB hitters pounded a number of hard-hit balls straight to Russian fielders.
But GB fielders made some crucial errors, GB pitchers Georgina Corrick and Carling Hare left too many balls in a good hitting zone and GB hitters didn’t begin to string anything together against an average Russian pitcher, Svetlana Lagutkina, until the end of the game when it was too late.
Despite the two losses, GB will still go through to the second playoff round, because Germany, which lost 2-1 to GB on Tuesday night, 8-1 to the Czechs this morning and 5-4 to Russia this afternoon, is the team eliminated from Pool F.
But GB will go into that second playoff round with a major disadvantage. Games played in the first playoff round against teams that also get through count in the second round, and GB will take an 0-2 record into the next round thanks to their losses to the Czechs and Russia. With both Italy and the Netherlands to play in the next round along with Austria, GB’s chances of getting to the Page Playoff as one of the final four teams left standing will depend on beating Austria and then pulling off a major upset.
GB will play Austria at 11.45 Dutch time on Thursday morning, Italy at 6.30 Thursday evening and the Netherlands at 11.45 on Friday morning. Further games will depend on whether GB can get to the Page Playoffs, which begin on Friday afternoon and culminate in the Grand Final at 6.00 pm on Saturday evening.
GB v Russia
The GB Women had reasonable hopes against Russia, whose results so far in the tournament – until they beat the Czechs 2-1 on Tuesday night – had not been impressive. But the game started badly for the GB Women, and then got worse.
In the top of the first inning, the first three GB hitters made good contact against Svetlana Lagutkina. Amy Moore hit a fly ball to centre field. Steph Pearce drove a deeper fly ball to centre field. Then Alicja Wolny drove the ball almost to the centre field fence. But all three fly balls were caught with a minimum of fuss by Czech centre fielder Helena Novotna.
Then the Czechs came to bat. Their first hitter, Tatiana Zhuchkova, put down a bunt along the third base line. GB third base player Lauren Evans picked it up and fired the ball toward Amy Wells, covering first base. But the throw skipped past Amy and ran all the way down into the right field corner, while Zhuchkova circled the bases. Shockingly, Russia had a 1-0 lead.
That wasn’t the end of the drama in the first inning, but it was the only run, as the Russians contrived to get runners thrown out at third and home.
GB went quietly in the second inning, but the Russians didn’t. There was another wild throw past first base on a bunt, and then the hits just kept on coming as the Russians continued getting bat on ball, slapping it through or just over the infield and using their speed to pressure the GB fielders. Six runs scored on six hits before the inning was over.
But at that point, even with Russia holding a 7-0 lead, it didn’t necessarily feel as if the game was over. Svetlana Lagutkina seemed hittable, and surely it was only a matter of time before GB put some offense together.
In the top of the third inning, Lauren Evans led off and smashed a wicked line drive – straight at the Russian second base player. Two more quick outs followed.
Carling Hare replaced Georgina Corrick as the GB pitcher in the bottom of the third inning, and Russia promptly scored four more runs to take the game beyond any hope of recovery. There were four more Russian hits, a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded and a throw to second to catch a Russian base-stealer – except that no one covered second base. By that time, the GB Women were playing like a team in shock.
In the top of the fourth inning, needing two runs to take the game further, GB bats finally came to life. Inevitably, it was Amy Moore who got things started, slashing a single to right centre field. Steph Pearce then lined a single over shortstop. Two runners on and no one out.
Alicja Wolny flied out to centre field, but the Russians failed to get an out on Sarah Craig’s ground ball to short, and the bases were loaded. Was GB about to make something happen?
Sadly, no. Georgina Corrick lined back to the pitcher, Sarah Craig was trapped off first for the double play, and the game was over – though some GB players didn’t know the “10 after 4” mercy rule and started out on the field for the bottom of the fourth inning before they realised the truth.
GB v Czech Republic
Second base player Amy Wells was the player who felt ill before the earlier game against the Czech Republic, though Amy recovered enough to enter the game in the third inning and later made two outstanding diving plays in the field.
But the injury to catcher Steph Pearce, who aggravated an old thumb injury on her catching hand before the game and was able to bat but not catch, was more crucial. Steph has worked closely with GB starting pitcher Carling Hare for several years now, and in Steph’s absence, Carling wasn’t the same pitcher who had heroically contained Germany in GB’s 2-1 win on Tuesday evening.
GB had to shift their line-up around, and Amy Moore took over the catching duties, two days after dislocating her left shoulder, and Amy was clearly in pain as she had to reach for pitches outside the strike zone. Yet she continued to be GB’s best hitter, as she had two of only three GB hits in the game.
Carling Hare threw the first two innings, allowing the Czechs a run in the top of the first and five more in the top of the second, and Georgina Corrick and Kori Waugh then pitched two innings each to finish the game. Georgina threw two excellent scoreless innings and Kori threw a scoreless fifth. But the Czechs scored a final four runs in the top of the sixth inning, three of them on an inside-the-park home run into the right field corner by Tereza Jackesova.
The main story of the game, apart from the disruption to GB plans, was the dominance of young Czech pitcher Viktoria Peckova, who had carried the Czech Juniors to victory in last year’s European Junior Championships and has now become the star of the Czech senior team.
Peckova throws hard, but also moves the ball around and locates her pitches exceptionally well. She had GB hitters waving at air for most of the game, and struck out 14 of the 24 batters she faced.
Amy Moore’s bouncing single over third base as the first batter Peckova faced in the bottom of the first inning was the only baserunner GB had until the fourth inning, when Sarah Craig reached on an error.
The only chink in the armour came in the bottom of the sixth inning, with GB 10-0 down. Amy Moore drove a single to left centre field with one out, and with two out, Alicja Wolny singled up the middle. Peckova then walked Sarah Craig and hit Kori Waugh with a pitch, and GB had a run. But Peckova then struck out Steph Pearce for the third time to bring the game to an end.
Championship Playoff results
The eight teams that made it through to the first Championship Playoff round have now completed a round-robin played in two groups of four:
POOL E
Netherlands
Italy
Austria
Spain
POOL F
Czech Republic
Russia
Germany
GB
Two of the eight teams -- Germany and Spain -- have been eliminated in this round; the other six, including the GB Women, have gone through to the second Championship Playoff round that begins on Thursday morning. Four of those six teams will go on to contest the Page Playoffs on Friday and Saturday.
Results in the first round of the Championship Playoffs were:
POOL E
Italy 7, Austria 0
Netherlands 7, Spain 0
Italy 7, Spain 0
Austria 8, Spain 1
Netherlands 1, Italy 0
Netherlands 10, Austria 0
POOL F
GB 2, Germany 1
Russia 2, Czech Republic 1
Czech Republic 8, Germany 1
Russia 5, Germany 4
Czech Republic 10, GB 1
Russia 11, GB 0
Consolation Playoffs
Meanwhile, the 12 teams that failed to make the Championship Playoffs started a Consolation Playoff round on Wednesday morning, playing a round-robin in three groups of four teams:
POOL G
Sweden
Greece
Slovenia
Poland
POOL H
France
Ukraine
Slovakia
Denmark
POOL I
Croatia
Switzerland
Israel
Ireland