The London Angels were within touching distance of a medal in the 2012 European Women's Fastpitch B Pool Cup, played in Ostrava in the Czech Republic from August 20-25. But a 2-1 Page Playoff loss to the Eagles from Lucerne, Switzerland meant that the Angels had to settle for fourth place.
After finishing in second place with a 3-1 record in their initial round robin group, the Angels suffered a heart-breaking 6-5 loss to the host team Arrows Ostrava in their first second round game on Thursday morning, August 23. So to reach the Page Playoff, the Angels needed to win both of their remaining second round games against the Comanches from France and the Eagles from Switzerland.
Angels' player Joelle Whitley takes up the story:
Angels v Comanches
The Angels knew they had a hard game ahead of them against Les Comanches on Thursday afternoon, and it didn't start well. After the Angels failed to score in the top of the first inning, the French managed to find holes in the Angels' defence, scoring five runs from five singles. By the end of the second inning, the Angels found themselves in a 6-0 hole.
They managed to gain back a couple runs in the third inning after a double by catcher Bev Stillson and a triple to right centre by Simone Zurschmitten. But the real turning point in the game came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Angels pitcher Joke van der Hulst struck out GB Women Assistant Coach Celine Lassaigne looking and the Angels then turned a double play to end the inning.
The Angels tied the score in the top of the sixth. Karlene Headley-Cooper led off the inning with a bunt single, Simone Zurschmitten singled and Milena Borisova drew a walk from Les Comanches pitcher Raina Hunter to load the bases. Joelle Whitley then hit a hard single down the left field line to score one run and an error by the left fielder allowed a second run to score and the remaining runners to advance to second and third. Emilie Juhant then laid down a sacrifice bunt which scored Milena Borisova, and thanks to some defensive confusion, Joelle Whitley managed to score as well, tying the game 6-6.
Now it was there for the Angels to win.
With one out in the top of the seventh, Kylie Marshall doubled to centre field. Karlene Headley-Cooper bunted to advance Kylie to third base and managed to reach first safely. Reading the situation, Karlene then rounded first to draw the throw. It worked and she found herself in a rundown between first and second. While the Comanches were occupied with Karlene, Kylie Marshall took off for home, sliding in under the tag and scoring the go-ahead run.
The Angels managed to get three straight outs in the bottom of the seventh to secure a come-from-behind 7-6 victory in what was easily their most exciting game of the tournament.
Angels v Eagles
The last game of the second round, played on Friday morning, pitted the Angels against the Swiss team Lucerne Eagles and it was a must-win game for the British if they wanted to advance to the Page Playoffs.
The Swiss started off with a run in the top of the first, but the Angels answered right back in the bottom of the inning and a massive double over the left fielder's head by Joke van der Hulst drove in three runs.
After that, the Angels continued to hit and build on the score, and eventually won the game 9-3, putting them into third position for the Page Playoffs. But this meant that the Angels would play the Swiss again later that day.
Page Playoff: Angels v Eagles
This time the Swiss were not messing around and put in their #1 pitcher, Victoria Reyland, while Joke van der Hulst threw for the Angels. It was one of the closest games of the tournament and a real pitchers' battle, with both pitchers going the full seven innings.
Both teams were held to a minimum number of base runners and it wasn't until the fourth inning that the Eagles managed to score a run. There were outstanding defensive plays from both sides, including by emergency Angels shortstop Vicky Keswick, who fielded a ball on the left side of the field and crossed over to second base to tag out the advancing runner. "I know I've only been doing this for two days but I'm the best shortstop ever!" exclaimed Vicky, laughing.
Joking aside, the Angels certainly could have done worse – Vicky did an amazing job filling in at a position she was unfamiliar with.
The game continued at 1-0 until the top of the seventh inning, when an inside-the-park home run scored another run for the Eagles. So it was do or die time for the Angels in the bottom of the seventh.
Vicky Keswick reached first on a error to lead off the inning and stole second base. Making an aggressive move, injured player/coach Nadya Pavlova put herself in to bat and laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Vicky to third. Joelle Whitley fouled out to first base and then, in one of the most aggressive plays of the tournament, Nadya Pavlova had Maya Traykova lay down a suicide squeeze with two outs. It worked! Vicky Keswick scored, Maya was safe on first and the Angels had one of the runs they needed.
But their aggressive play came to an end when Maya Traykova was tagged out trying to steal second. It was a gamble that everyone supported, but unfortunately it didn't work out. So the Angels lost the game 2-1, putting them in fourth place for the tournament, two places higher than their finish last year in Bulgaria.
The Angels were very proud of the exciting softball they had played throughout the tournament, even though they were shut out of the medals. They made the fewest errors (only 12 in seven games) and had a team fielding percentage of .946 as well as four batters (Kylie Marshall, Karlene Headley-Cooper, Bev Stillson and Nadya Pavlova) who hit over .400 for the competition.
“They played brilliant,” said coach Nadya Pavlova after the final game, “I am proud of all of them.”
Final Standings
1 – Skovde (Sweden)
2 – Les Comanches (France)
3 – Lucerne Eagles (Switzerland)
4 – London Angels (GB)
5 – Arrows Ostrava (Czech Republic)
6 – Trnada (Slovakia)
7 – United (Denmark)
8 – Ladonas (Greece)
9 – Princ (Croatia)
10 – Szostka Brzeg (Poland)