By Bob Fromer
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Sant Boi, Spain: 4 August – The GB Under-19 Women’s Fastpitch Team rolled to their sixth straight victory on Thursday afternoon at the 2016 European Junior Championships with an 8-4 win over Russia, but in the end the game may have been a little too close for comfort.
This was GB’s first game in Round Three, with matches against Italy on Thursday night and Belgium on Friday morning still to come, and at the moment it’s GB and Italy that have virtually guaranteed their places in the final four, and look headed for the 1 v 2 game in the Page Playoffs that start on Friday afternoon.
But anything can still happen – and today’s game was a good example of that.
Great start​
The primary objects for today’s game against a Russian team that has had indifferent results so far were (a) to win and (b) to score runs as quickly as possible so that (c) Georgina Corrick could pitch as few innings as possible with bigger games to come.
With those objectives in mind, the game could not have started better.
After Georgina set down the Russians in order in the top of the first inning, GB came in to bat and promptly put six runs on the board. The Russians, taking their tactics from what Germany did on Wednesday, started one of their slower pitchers, Dana Zimina, in an attempt to keep the GB hitters off balance. But this worked less well for the Russians than it had for the Germans.
Hannah Burge led off for GB by beating out a single to shortstop. Two quick outs followed, but then Megan Parno walked, Chelsea D’Avilar singled to left to drive in the first run, Amie Hutchison walked, and Kyra Watson stroked another clutch two-out two-RBI base hit.
After Olivia Lee was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Casey Moritz singled in a run, Hannah Burge walked to force in another and the sixth and final run was scored by Olivia Lee on a wild pitch.
That brought a pitching change for Russia, with Victoria Sorokino taking over, and she retired Alana Snow on a fly ball to centre field to end the inning. But GB had exactly what they wanted.
Danger lurks
Kyra Watson took over the pitching for GB in the top of the second, and pitched five good innings, shutting out the Russians in the second and third on no hits and one walk.
Meanwhile, GB scored another run in the bottom of the second inning on an infield single by Georgina Corrick, an error, a groundout and an RBI single by Amie Hutchison. At 7-0, that brought the score into five-inning mercy rule territory, which would have been GB’s aim.
But as the game progressed, GB made a number of offensive and defensive substitutions that seemed to reduce momentum. And slowly, the Russians began to creep back into contention.
In the fourth inning, the teams traded runs, and so GB retained their mercy rule margin at 8-1.
The Russians scored their run on their first two hits of the game – a double by Maria Gudym and a single by Marina Barysheva. GB scored when Alana Snow got to second on an error, moved to third on an infield single by pinch-hitter Amira Solomon and came home when the Russians got her hung up between second and third but then botched the rundown.
But from the fifth inning onward, the game seemed to change. The GB offense went flat against the entirely hittable pitching of Victoria Sorokino, the GB defense got nervous and made uncharacteristic mistakes and suddenly every little pop fly the Russians hit seemed to find a hole.
The Russians were also finding the range against Kyra Watson, and they made the score 8-2 in the fifth inning when Tatiana Khludova doubled and came home on an error. Things might have been worse if GB hadn’t pulled off a fine double play on a bunt, with Sian Wigington, after recording the out at first, firing the ball back across the diamond to get Polina Vereikina trying to go from first to third on the play.
In the top of the sixth inning, however, things began to get more serious as the Russians scored another two runs and cut the gap to 8-4. A hit batter, a triple by Marina Barysheva and an error did the damage.
GB threatened in the bottom of the sixth inning when the Russians committed consecutive infield errors but couldn’t score, and the GB coaching staff decided it was time to stop messing around.
Back into the game for the top of the seventh inning came Georgina Corrick to pitch and most of the starting defense at their original positions. And even then it wasn’t straightforward, as the Russians managed two baserunners with two out on a catcher’s interference call and a little line drive that Amie Hutchison dived for at third but couldn’t hold.
But with the tying run in the on-deck circle – ie, close enough to be scary – Maria Gudym grounded out to second base to end the game.
A win is a win is a win….
RESULTS
The third round of the tournament involves six teams playing each other (but with played games from Round Two counted) to determine which four teams go to the Page Playoff on Friday evening and Saturday, and in which order.
Results of Round Three games played so far today are:
Czech Republic 3, Belgium 0
Italy 8, Germany 1 (5 inns)
GB 8, Russia 4
The current standings for the Round Three teams, with all six teams back in action on Thursday evening, are:
GB (4-0)
Italy (4-0)
Czech Republic (3-1)
Belgium (1-3)
Russia (0-4)
Germany (0-4)
GB and Italy will play on Thursday evening in a game pitting the tournament’s only unbeaten teams against each other. While the result will certainly have psychological value, it probably has no other meaning, because if GB can beat Belgium (highly likely) and Italy can beat the Czech Republic (probable but not guaranteed) on Friday morning, then both teams will make it to the 1 v 2 Page Playoff game regardless of tonight’s result, where they will meet again, with the winner going straight to Saturday’s final.
Photos by John Corrick