by Steve Fullan
The London Meteors Fastpitch Team headed to the Phoenix Baseball and Softball Club in Zeist in the Netherlands on the weekend of May 17-20 to participate in the 30th anniversary of the annual high-level men's fastpitch Zeisterslot Tournament, and held their own against very stiff opposition.
But after finishing fifth in the round-robin phase, the Meteors went out in the quarterfinals to another British squad from RAF Lakenheath in the so-called “Battle of Britain”.
Personnel
The Meteors were made up of several players from the GB Men's Team who took part in the recent ISF World championships in Auckland, New Zealand in March, including Kenny Pregnell, Michael Lee, Josh Peat, Steve Rice and Curt Taylor. Meteors and GB Head Coach Russ Snow was absent so Stan Doney took over the Head Coaching duties.
Several other experienced players could not attend because of time taken off for the World Championships in March, so it was time for youngsters Josh Peat and Tom Priscott to shine. Also included on the roster were two guest players: Arjan Baanen, ex-Dutch national team pitcher who retired after the 2013 World Championships and was fulfilling a long-held dream of playing for the London Meteors; and David Van der Vorst, a Belgian international and a club teammate of Arjan Baanen.
Saturday
The plan for the weekend, since the team was stretched in terms of pitching resources, was to battle through the round robin games on Saturday and Sunday and hope to end up in fourth or fifth place to avoid playing either of the top two teams in the playoffs – and also to get a late start Monday morning!
Typically, the London Meteors start this tournament slowly, and the prospect of playing the 2010 European Champions Denmark in the first game was a daunting one, but the Meteors held their own, although they ended up on the losing side by a score of 4-1, with John Brown and Arjan Baanen splitting the pitching duties.
Next up was Lupi Roma, first-time visitors to Zeist, who were recently 2012 European Super Cup runners-up. Meteors pulled off a 4-1 win on the back of strong pitching from Arjan Baanen and John Brown, who shared the circle. Key hits came from Kenny Pregnell, Stan Doney and Steve Rice.
The Meteors' last game of the day was against traditional arch rivals Lakenheath, who are now mostly made up of Belgian, Dutch and Spanish international players. Juan Carlos Macias from Lakenheath was a thorn in the side with his slap/bunt hits and base stealing, and his quality pitching limited the Meteors to just a few hits and two runs as Lakenheath cashed in on several opportunities to eventually win 9-2.
The highlight of the game for Meteors came with Lakenheath up 9-2 in the sixth inning and Juan Carlos Macias on first, who decided to steal second. The batter hit a ground ball to second baseman Kenny Pregnell on the pitch, who fielded the ball and promptly body-checked Juan Carlos to teach him a lesson. There was no retaliation from the Lakenheath bench, as they realised Juan Carlos had broken an unwritten rule – but the old saying “I went to a softball match and a hockey game broke out” was on everyone’s mind.
At the end of Saturday’s play the Meteors were 1-2. Josh Peat had done well at shortstop, making several good plays and hanging in there at second during steal attempts. Tom Priscott also shone in the outfield, making several putouts despite having limited playing time on the first day.
Sunday
The Meteors started well on Sunday with a 6-4 win on the back of Darryl Patterson’s pitching and hits from Josh Peat, Kenny Pregnell, John Brown, Steve Rice and Michael Lee.
Meteors then lost 11-0 to the Dutch National Team, but were holding back in order to save themselves for the last game of the day. Josh Peat even made an appearance on the mound against the Dutch to gain some international experience, and one of the few hits for the Meteors was by Tom Priscott off one of the most experienced pitchers on the Dutch team.
Meteors then faced the Stenlose Bulls (Denmark), who have several Danish National Team players on the roster (including star pitcher Kim Hansen), plus GB Men's Team catcher Kevin Stockford, who currently lives in Denmark. Meteors could do nothing with their bats and a couple of errors led to five unearned runs for Stenlose. Darryl Patterson pitched a good game, limiting the Bulls to just a couple of hits, but the final score was 5-0 to the Danes.
Battle of Britain
So the Meteors ended up fifth after six round-robin games and this set up the “Battle of Britain” in the quarterfinals on Monday against Lakenheath.
With only seconds to spare, Lakenheath managed to get nine players on the field, otherwise they would have forfeited the game.
In the end, Tournament MVP Juan Carlos Macias continued to be a thorn in the Meteors' side as he led off the bottom of the first inning with a slap single to left field and promptly stole second and third on consecutive pitches. Another hit and an error followed, and at the end of the first inning, Lakenheath had a 4-0 lead.
Meteors were unable to respond until Steve Fullan led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a triple and Josh Peat walked. Steve then scored on a double steal and Josh eventually crossed the plate to make the score 4-2.
However, the Meteors could not score any more runs. Lakenheath managed one more and eventually ran out 5-2 winners, but the Meteors will feel that it was their own errors that led to their downfall.
Promising future
Over the weekend, Josh Peat played very well at shortstop in place of Steve Hazard, who was unable to attend because of work commitments. With Tom Priscott also seeing game time and gaining experience against quality competition, the future is bright for the GB Men’s Fastpitch programme.
At the end of the tournament, the Zeist organisers added some names to their Wall of Fame to thank and honour people who have been influential for softball in general and Zeist in particular. Steve Fullan was added to the Wall of Fame as a thank you for bringing the London Meteors to the tournament for the last 10 years.
Individual Awards
Top Rookie: Lukas Lohman ( Denmark)
Stolen Bases: Juan Carlos Macias (Lakenheath)
Home Run King: Valdemar Terkelsen ( Denmark)
Best Hitter: Enrique Javier ( Netherlands)
Best Pitcher: Henrik Brask (Stenlose Bulls)
Tournament MVP: Juan Carlos Macias (Lakenheath)
London Meteors Roster
John Brown (NZ)
Geoff Clayton (GB)
Stan Doney (NZ)
Steve Fullan (GB)
Michael Lee (GB)
Darryl Patterson (GB)
Josh Peat (GB)
Ken Pregnell (GB)
Tom Priscott (GB)
Steven Rice (GB)
Curt Taylor (GB)
David Van Der Vorst (Belgium)
Arjan Baanen (Netherlands)