By Bob Fromer
Rosmalen, Netherlands: 22 July – Carling Hare pitched the most courageous game of her GB Softball career tonight, and thanks to her clutch performance, the GB Women’s Team held on for a nail-biting 2-1 win over Germany in the first game of the playoffs at the European Women’s Championships.
Carling was in and out of trouble the entire game, as Germany had their lead-off hitter on base in five of the seven innings and baserunners in every inning but the top of the sixth, with 10 runners left on base. But Carling, catcher Steph Pearce and the GB Team bent but never broke, and whenever Carling needed to bear down to get out of an inning, she was able to come up with big pitches and big outs.
Of her nine strikeouts in the game, three of them ended German threats and one of them ended the game.
Having finished second to Italy with a 3-1 record in Pool D in the first stage round-robin, GB is now in a first round playoff group with Germany, Russia and the Czech Republic, and three of the four teams will go through to the next round. The win over Germany, with games to come on Wednesday against the Czech Republic and Russia, has given GB a great head start towards qualifying for that next round, but there is still more work to do.
Earlier on Tuesday, GB defeated Greece 9-1 in their last Pool D round-robin game to guarantee a playoff spot, and a report on that game is below.
Wild start
All the runs in the GB-Germany game were scored at the beginning and end of the contest.
GB’s two runs came in the bottom of the first inning against German starter Mona Horner, who pitched a complete game, giving GB five hits, three walks and one hit-by-pitch in six innings, and striking out three. But Horner’s biggest gift to the GB offense was two wild pitches she threw in that first inning, both of which allowed runs to score.
The British lead-off hitter in the first inning was right fielder Amy Moore, who had to leave Monday night’s game against Italy with a shoulder dislocation. But Amy insisted on playing, heavily strapped, against Germany, and was the only GB player with two hits.
One of them was her leadoff single to right centre field to open the batting for GB in the bottom of the first inning, and Hayley D’Avilar followed with a perfect bunt single to put runners on first and second. Alicja Wolny popped out to shortstop, but Sarah Craig walked to load the bases. And that’s when Mona Horner threw two pitches in the dirt that skipped past catcher Alexandra Stuwe. The first one scored Amy and the second scored Hayley, and GB had a 2-0 lead.
Tense middle
That 2-0 lead was maintained all the way to the top of the seventh inning, despite all the cheers, drumming, singing and chanting of a very large crowd of German supporters who filled most of the seating on the main diamond.
“I love to hear that,” said GB shortstop Sarah Craig after the game. “In my head, I can turn that round and make myself think they’re cheering for me!”
And the German supporters had a lot to cheer about, as their team threatened to score in virtually every frame. Germany had only four hits off Carling Hare’s pitching, but there were four walks and three GB errors to add to the tally of German baserunners.
On top of that, there was the strategy employed by German coach Andre Prins, the peripatetic dean of European softball coaches, who thinks that GB defences will crack if you drop down enough bunts. German batters put down eight bunts during the game, and some of them were successful as sacrifices or base hits. But only one of them led to a run, and that was in the top of the seventh inning.
But long before we got there, the tension had been slowly growing for the GB Team and supporters as each inning went by, as each German threat came into being and as Carling Hare and the GB defense extinguished all of them.
GB had their own chances, with at least one baserunner in every inning. But, like the Germans, GB couldn’t get the big hit when they needed it and couldn’t convert any of those baserunners into runs.
The German second inning ended when Carling struck out Hannah Grundmann swinging with runners on second and third. There were runners on first and second with two out in the top of the third inning when Lisa Kullner grounded into a force play at second. The German fourth inning ended with a strikeout of lead-off hitter Katharina Szalay with runners at second and third. In the top of the fifth inning, Julia de Jong bounced to Alicja Wolny at first base for the third out with runners on first and third.
The German sixth inning, in contrast, was completely uneventful, as Carling Hare struck out Christin Poon and Atsoon Alipoup and got Milena Bottger on a grounder back to the pitcher.
But the Germans were going to have the top of their line-up coming up for the fourth time in the top of the seventh inning, and no one thought that inning would be easy. And it wasn’t.
End game
Katharina Szalay opened the top of the seventh by doing what everyone expected: laying a bunt down the third base line. GB third base player Lauren Evans attempted to pick it up bare-handed, but couldn’t do it, so the Germans had a speedy lead-off hitter on first base. Sazalay went to second base when Arlene Wachendorf bounced out to first base, and she went to third when Miriam Kemmer struck out but catcher Steph Pearce dropped the ball and had to throw to first.
But Szalay on third wasn’t a problem: GB had a 2-0 lead, a run to play with and just one out to get. But suddenly, a runner on third was a big problem because the German clean-up hitter, Christiana Gable, hit a ball that soared over the head of Amy Moore in right field, scoring Szalay while Gable made it round to third. Now it was the tying run on third base as Lisa Kullner stepped to the plate, and the sense was that if Germany could tie the game, all the momentum would swing in their favour.
But Carling Hare was not about to let that happen. Two quick strikes put Carling ahead in the count, the next pitch was low, and then fourth pitch was a rise ball that Kullner swung at and missed as the German crowd went silent and the GB players celebrated a memorable win.
GB v Greece
Earlier on Tuesday, the GB Women’s Team took a while to get going in their final first-round pool game but eventually a 9-1 mercy rule win over Greece saw them through to the first playoff round.
In particular, the watching GB supporters were having severe heart palpitations in the top of the third inning.
With the score tied at 1-1, and with GB hitters still struggling to solve the slow outside curve balls of Greek starter Loren Stavroli, the Greeks loaded the bases in the third against GB starter Kori Waugh, after Kori had struck out the first two hitters in the inning. Suddenly, two singles to left field and a walk put Greeks on every base, and the count went to 2-2 on Athina Paulou, who then made solid contact in fouling off several pitches. It felt like the game was at a turning point.
And as things turned out, it was. Kori finally struck out Athina Paulou swinging on a pitch on the outside corner, and a relieved GB team promptly came in and scored five runs in the bottom of the third on a hit-by-pitch and then five straight hits to begin to move the game towards safety.
Then 16-year-old Georgina Corrick took over the rest of the game for Great Britain, coming in to pitch two solid innings of relief, striking out four Greek hitters, and clubbing a bases-loaded triple in the bottom of the fourth inning to put GB in mercy rule territory.
Quiet start
The game had a quiet start, as Kori Waugh retired the Greeks in order in the top of the first inning.
GB then picked up a run in the bottom of the first when Steph Pearce, replacing the injured Amy Moore in the lead-off spot, singled up the middle and came around to score on a long one-out double blasted by Alicja Wolny over the head of Greek centre fielder Theodora Skarogianni.
But GB couldn’t get Alicja in to score, and the Greeks tied the game in the top of the second inning on a bunt base hit, a sacrifice bunt and a little two-out single dropped into right centre field by Iliana Kourea. That was followed by a walk, and the situation briefly looked threatening, but Kori Waugh ended the inning by striking out Nicole Kotsia.
Breakthrough
GB did nothing in the bottom of the second inning, then we had the tension-filled top of the third, and then GB made the breakthrough in the bottom of the inning.
It was the second time the GB hitters had seen Loren Stavroli, and now they began to time her pitches.
Steph Pearce, leading off, was hit by a pitch. Hayley D’Avilar then beat out a perfect bunt base hit and Alicja Wolny dropped a fly ball single into right field for a run, with Hayley reaching third. A second run soon followed as Alicja stole second base, the Greeks threw to the shortstop cutting in front of the base, and Hayley D’Avilar beat her throw back to home.
Sarah Craig then reached on a ground ball to short, stole second, and Nicole Ratel promptly drove in Alicja and Sarah with a single to left field and took second on the throw to the plate. Lauren Evans then slashed a single to right centre to drive in Nicole.
Chloe Wigington was then hit by a pitch and Kori Waugh’s infield single loaded the bases, still with no outs. But the Greeks escaped further damage on a force play at home and two strikeouts.
Finishing up
Georgina Corrick was controlled and sharp in relief in the fourth and fifth innings, giving up a soft single in each inning, but spotting fastballs on the outside corner and using her rise ball to get four swinging strikeouts. She also had help in the top of the fifth inning when second base player Amy Wells made a great diving stop moving to her left, then flipped backhanded to first from a prone position to retire Loren Stavroli. It was Amy’s second fine diving stop of the game, the other on a ball up the middle, though on that occasion there was no chance to throw the runner out.
Meanwhile, GB had put the game away in the bottom of the fourth inning. There were two outs and no one on when Nicole Ratel walked, Lauren Evans singled to left and Chloe Wigington was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game, much to her disgust, to load the bases.
Georgina Corrick then drove a long fly ball to left field that Athina Paulou made a good try for but couldn’t catch. All three runners scored and GB was home and dry – but with tougher challenges to come.
Playoff round
The eight teams that have made it through to the first playoff round will play a round-robin in two groups of four:
POOL E
Netherlands
Italy
Austria
Spain
POOL F
Czech Republic
Russia
Germany
GB
Two of the eight teams will be eliminated, and six will go through to the second playoff round. Four of those teams will go on to contest the Page Playoffs on Friday and Saturday.
All eight teams were in action on Tuesday afternoon and evening, with these results:
GB 2, Germany 1
Russia 2, Czech Republic 1
Italy 7, Austria 0
Netherlands 7, Spain 0
Tomorrow (Wednesday), GB will play the Czech Republic at 2.00 pm Dutch time and Russia at 6.30 pm. Two wins out of three will guarantee passage to the next round, and even the one win against Germany could be enough -- but it would be wise not to count on it.
For the 12 teams that failed to make the playoffs, an extensive round of consolation playoffs to determine placings 9-20 will begin on Wednesday morning and will culminate in a Page Playoff on Friday and Saturday.
Round-robin results
Final results from round-robin play over the first two-and-a-half days of the European Women’s Championships 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
Denmark 4, Israel 3
Germany 17, Sweden 3
Netherlands 16, Denmark 1
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
Spain 9, Poland 0
Russia 11, Croatia 1
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
Czech Republic 14, Ireland 0
Austria 5, Ukraine 0
Slovenia 7, Ireland 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
Greece 8, Switzerland 0
GB 9, Greece 1
Italy 13, Slovakia 0