Thursday, August 23 -- Britain's leading women's fastpitch club team, the London Angels, are still in with a chance of reaching the Page Playoffs in the 10-team European Women's B Pool Cup Tournament, being played this week in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
After finishing with a 3-1 record in the initial round robin, the Angels are now in a six-team second round group, with four teams going through to the Page Playoff.
Unfortunately, the Angels lost their first game in the second round-robin this morning in heart-breaking fashion to the host team Arrows Ostrava, who scored two runs with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning on an error and a wild pitch for a walk-off 6-5 win.
So to reach the Page Playoff, the Angels need to win at least one of their remaining second round games against the Comanches from France or the Eagles from Switzerland -- and wins in both games would make a Page Playoff place secure.
Early success
The Angels finished second in their initial round-robin group with wins over Szostka Brzeg from Poland by 8-1, Princ from Croatia by 7-3 and Trnava from Slovakia by 6-1.
Their one loss was a 4-2 defeat to the Swedish team Skovde in a game where the Angels took an early 2-0 lead but were overtaken by a Swedish team that had nine hits to just two for the Angels.
Joke van der Hulst and Kylie Marshall have been doing most of the pitching for the Angels. Kylie Marshall also batted .500 in the opening round-robin and drove in three runs, while Bevin Stillson hit .455 and Nadezheda Pavlova batted .364 and also had three RBIs.
Roster
The full Angels' team is:
Milena Borisova
Karlene Headley-Cooper
Emilie Juhant
Vicky Keswick
Chris MacLeod
Kylie Marshall
Nadezhda Pavlova
Bevin Stillson
Maya Traykova
Joke van der Hulst
Joelle Whitley
Simone Zurschmitten