Tuesday 8 August – The British teams H20 and Travelling Dodgers continued their winning ways on the second day of the European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup on Tuesday in Sofia, Bulgaria, but the Travelling Dodgers had a long day and a couple of close shaves, and H20 didn’t have things entirely their own way.
Playing in the seven-team Group A in the tournament’s initial round-robin, the Travelling Dodgers were scheduled to play three games today, and the first two, played back-to-back, were extremely close. Against the Textown Tigers-Easpro from the Netherlands, the Dodgers were in a dogfight throughout, pulled away to a small late-inning lead, and then had to hang on for a 26-22 win.
In the next game, against Waynes Pardubice from Czechia, who won the Slowpitch Super Cup in 2021 when no British teams took part, the Dodgers seemed to be coasting, were stunned by a 10-run sixth inning from the Czechs, and then had to come from behind to win by a score of 16-13.
Even in their final game, against the Belgian team Beveren Reapers, the Dodgers found themselves behind by 11-8 going into the bottom of the fourth inning before 15 runs scored in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings propelled them to a 23-14 win.
Meanwhile, H20, playing in the six-team Group B, had a less hectic schedule, with two games to play on Tuesday.
The first of them was against the winless Bulgarian host team, Akademiks Sofia, and was a bit more of a struggle than might have been expected. At the end of three innings, the score was tied at 9-9, though H20 gradually pulled away after that by scoring in every inning while keeping the Bulgarians to just a couple of further runs.
Later in the day, H20 took on the Poperinge Frontliners from Belgium, and after falling behind early, the British team sailed through to win 24-9.
At the end of the second day’s play in the 2023 Slowpitch Super Cup, the Travelling Dodgers are comfortably in first place in Pool A, but in Pool B, H20 are sharing the lead with the well-known German club UCE Travellers, with both teams unbeaten on 4-0.
Travelling Dodgers 26, Textown Tigers-Eastpro 22
This was the kind of games that seems to happen these days when Dutch and British teams get together – lots of hits, lots of runs, lots of action.
In this game, the Travelling Dodgers had 30 hits to 29 for the Tigers and the Dodgers won the home run derby by 10-5, which was probably the difference in the game. The Dodgers scored in every inning, every player in the Dodgers line-up had at least one hit, and Tyler McGoveran and Daniel Downes had five hits each.
The game started well for the Dodgers. The Textown Tigers scored a couple of runs in the top of the first inning, and the Dodgers came back with seven. Tyler McGoveran, as is his wont, homered to lead off the game, and seven straight hits followed, by Sherry Kenyon, Nick Wingate, Katie Jessop, Daniel Downes, Jenny Heglet, Matthew Burnett (a two-run homer), and Areej Elmaazi.
But the script flipped in the top of the second inning when the Dutch team scored 11 runs on 11 hits and two walks, and suddenly the Dodgers were 13-7 down and in a fight.
Six runs on six hits by the Dodgers in the bottom of the second inning, including a home run by Daniel Downes and a double by Sam Steele, tied the score at 13-all, and after both teams scored twice in the third inning it was 15-all.
But the Dodgers then scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, including home runs by Nick Wingate, Daniel Downes and Jenny Heglet, and five more in the bottom of the fifth, including home runs by Sam Steele and Nick Wingate, and the Dutch team couldn’t quite match that pace.
In the top of the seventh inning, with the Dodgers up 26-22, the Textown Tigers had a lead-off single, but then a fielder’s choice and a 6-4-3 double play brought the game to a quick end.
Travelling Dodgers 16, Waynes Pardubice 13
If the Dodgers thought things might be easier against Waynes Pardubice, they were right – but only for a while.
Scoring once again in every inning, and leaning heavily on the home run, the Dodgers had built up an 11-3 lead after five innings and were looking forward to lunch.
But in the top of the sixth inning, the Czech team exploded with 11 hits, including a three-run homer by Tadeas Novotny, and scored 10 runs to take a 13-11 lead.
The Dodgers may have been slightly stunned, but they didn’t panic, and instead rolled out the power yet again. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Tyler McGoveran led off with a solo home run, and then Nick Wingate homered following a Sherry Kenyon single and Daniel Downes homered following a single by Areej Elmaazi.
The Dodgers had regained the lead at 16-13, and that became the final score after the Czechs could only manage a single in the top of the seventh inning.
H20 19, Akademiks Sofia 11
Mike MacDowell had five home runs in five trips to the plate, four of them over the fence, and seven RBIs, to lead H20 past the Bulgarian team Akademiks Sofia, who put up some strong resistance over the first four innings.
H20 scored seven runs in the top of the first inning, including Mike MacDowell’s first home run of the game, but most of them came on six straight singles with two out by Joe Grantham, Josephine Cherson, Matt Tomlin, Cheyenne Vogel, Roger Grooms, and Kat Golik.
Despite Mike MacDowell’s home run heroics, however, the Bulgarian team kept chipping away, and at the end of the fourth inning, H20 had just a one-run lead, at 11-10.
But four runs in the top of the fifth inning, three of them on Mike MacDowell’s fourth home run, gave the British team a bit of daylight, and the Bulgarian offense dried up, with only one run over the final three innings off the pitching of Roger Grooms.
H20 scored a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning and again in the top of the seventh, and the final score was 19-11.
H20 24, Poperinge Frontliners 9
After falling behind 4-0 in the top of the first inning to the Belgian team Poperinge Frontliners , H20 came back with seven runs in the bottom of the inning and the rest was smooth sailing as they coasted to a 24-9 six-inning win.
Once again, as is becoming a habit with both British teams, H20 scored at least a run in every inning, and they had further a further outburst of six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and then scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning that ended the game on the mercy rule.
Mike MacDowell added two more home runs to the five he posted in the first game of the day, Roger Grooms had an inside-the-park home run, and Josephine Cherson and Josh Smith had four hits each, with Mike MacDowell and Matt Tomlin picking up three.
Barbara Killer and Robbie Studholme each had a triple, while Josh Smith and Joe Grantham each had a pair of doubles.
Roger Grooms limited the Belgian team to just 11 hits (H20 had 28), and in three of the six innings, the Frontliners failed to score.
They did, however, contribute to their own downfall by committing nine errors!
Travelling Dodgers 23, Beveren Reapers 14
The Belgian team Beveren Reapers scored steadily over the first six innings of this game, and after three innings the Reapers and the Travelling Dodgers were tied at 8-8.
After that, both teams kept scoring, but the Dodgers used their power to score a lot more: seven runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and four runs each in the fifth and sixth innings, and that propelled them to the easiest of their three wins on the day, at 23-14.
Once again, the Dodgers dominated as far as home runs were concerned, with six round-trippers to none for the Belgians. Tyler McGoveran had two more to bring his total to 12, which leads the tournament, and Daniel Downes also had two home runs while Nick Wingate and Matthew Burnett had one apiece.
Tyler McGoveran went 5-for-5, and Nick Wingate and Areej Elmaazi had four hits each. Daniel Downes had six RBIs, and Matthew Burnett four.
The decisive inning that allowed the Dodgers to take over the game was the bottom of the fourth, when they scored seven runs. Two of them came on a Tyler McGoveran home run, but the rest were built on a flurry of singles by Katie Jessop, Nick Wingate, Areej Elmaazi, Jenny Heglet and Matt Burnett.
A three-run home run by Daniel Downes accounted for most of the four runs the Dodgers scored in the bottom of the fifth, and two-run homers by Nick Wingate and Daniel Downes accounted for the four more runs scored in the bottom of the sixth.
At the end of a very long day for the Travelling Dodgers, power had prevailed over three stubborn opponents.
Looking ahead
The first-round groups in this tournament will conclude the opening round-robin on Wednesday morning.
After that, the top three teams in each group will go forward to a full six-team Championship round-robin to be played from Wednesday afternoon through Friday. The top two teams when this round-robin has finished will play in the gold medal game on Saturday, the teams finishing third and fourth will play in the bronze medal game, and the bottom two teams will play for fifth place.
Scores and standings
The 13 teams competing in the 2023 European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup have been divided into two groups, Group A and Group B, for an initial round-robin that is being played from Monday through Wednesday lunchtime. Group A has seven teams, while Group B has six teams, with a British entry in each group.
Scores from Tuesday's games are:
GROUP A
Beveren Reapers 23, BSC Buffaloes 19
Travelling Dodgers 26, Textown Tigers-Eastpro 22
Dodder Dynamoes 24, Beveren Reapers 14
Travelling Dodgers 16, Waynes Pardubice 13
Dodder Dynamoes 16, Berlin Hangarounds 9
Textown Tigers-Eastpro 20, Waynes Pardubice 16
BSC Buffaloes 33, Berlin Hangarounds 17
Travelling Dodgers 23, Beveren Reapers 14
Waynes Pardubice 13, Dodder Dynamoes 9
GROUP B
BatPak 16, Poperinge Frontlines 15
H20 19, Akademiks Sofia 13
UCE Travellers 13, Asko Linz Bandits & Witches 11
H20 24, Poperinge Frontliners 9
UCE Travellers 19, BatPak 2
Asko Linz Bandits & Witches 19, Akademiks Sofia 6
Group standings after Tuesday's games are:
GROUP A
Travelling Dodgers (5-0)
Textown Tigers-Eastpro (3-2)
Dodder Dynamoes (3-3)
BSC Buffaloes (2-2)
Beveren Reapers (2-3)
Waynes Pardubice (2-3)
Berlin Hangarounds (0-4)
GROUP B
H20 (4-0)
UCE Travellers (4-0)
Asko Linz Witches and Bandits (2-2)
BatPak (2-3)
Poperinge Frontliners (1-3)
Akademiks Sofia (0-5)
Tomorrow
On Wednesday, the Travelling Dodgers will play their final Group A game against the BSC Buffaloes from Bulgaria, but in Group B, the key game will be the meeting between H20 and the UCE Travellers to decide who will win the group.
Both British teams are guaranteed to go forward to the Championship playoff round-robin that starts on Wednesday afternoon, and if both the Dodgers and H20 win their groups, they will meet each other at 3.30 pm.