By David Morris
Weiner Neustadt, Austria: 4 August – Two wins apiece capped off a fine day for the British teams at the European Slowpitch Super Cup in Vienna on Wednesday, where Chromies and H2O have finished first and second in their respective pools, with playoffs to come.
London Chromies 27, Triple Play (Germany) 13
Chromies continued a successful and so far unbeaten tournament with an early morning win against Triple Play, but not before finding themselves well behind in the early going.
Having scored and loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first inning, Chromies somehow allowed Triple Play to make three quick outs before hitting six runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, keyed by a leadoff double from Tomas Rambousek.
Chromies managed a pair of runs in the second inning thanks to Hannah Pitman's RBI double, but by the end of that inning Triple Play were ahead by 8-3.
Doug Clouston set things straight in the dugout and his Chromies responded immediately in the third inning. Enmanuell Estevez scored Paul Gough with a searing double to right field and Marketa Sulcova directed a centre field hit just past the diving Tomas Vseticka at shortstop. Hannah Pitman got another hit and Estevez, still on second, scampered off the base momentarily, distracting the middle infield enough to allow Marketa Sulcova to take off from third and tie the game.
By the end of the inning, Chromies were ahead 9-8, and they poured on a further four runs in the fourth inning and drove farther ahead in the fifth. The London side showed good discipline at bat, laying off the home runs and instead spreading the ball along the ground in all directions, and soon they were 20-10 in the lead.
As the temperature rose quickly, Chromies were in good spirits in the final innings, and saved the best for last as Areej Almaazi knocked a long drive to right field with the bases loaded and dashed all the way around for an inside-the-park grand slam, much to the disbelief of a visibly flagging Triple Play.
Shortly afterwards, Enmanuell Estevez finally put one over the fence for a solo home run and the game ended 27-13 in Chromies' favour.
H2O 16, Titans (Belgium) 0
H2O got back on track in the early afternoon with a convincing win over the Titans to stay in the chase behind DNAce from the Czech Republic at the top of Pool A.
Both pitchers featured in the opening inning, with the excellent Roger Grooms shutting out the Titans in the top half, and the Belgian pitcher, Gerard Kauwenberghs, grabbing a hard-hit ball from Katherine Golik to keep the score at 0-0 in the bottom of the frame.
In the top of the second inning, however, Roger Grooms made a rare error, letting a ground ball go straight through him. But he redeemed himself immediately with back-to-back strikeouts to keep the game scoreless.
H2O finally brought the scoreboard to life in the bottom of second thanks to an RBI triple from second baseman Brad Gilmour.
Roger Grooms dealt with the bottom part of the Titans’ order himself in the top of the third inning with yet another strikeout and two comebackers, both of which he happily tossed to first base. In contrast, the Titans' pitcher was pounded when H2O came to bat, but they could not string enough hits together to summon up more than one run on an Annie Dubovec RBI single.
Having shut out Titans yet again, H2O finally saw a rally in the bottom of the fourth inning as pinch hitter Chris Yoxall walked with two outs, allowing Annie Dubovec to take an automatic walk, loading the bases. Mike MacDowell, also a pinch hitter, launched a hard hit to right field, and thanks to a fluffed throw managed to make it to third base, with three runs scoring. Kim Miller added to the mayhem by taking advantage of another wild throw on her ground ball, jockeying towards second base and keeping the Titan infield's attention while Mike MacDowell sneaked in at home and Miller ultimately made it to second base with a head-first slide.
With H2O 10-0 up in the bottom of the fifth inning, Brad Gilmour and Tjaza Skabar had an RBI double and an RBI triple respectively and then Andraz Skabar dealt the final blow with a two-run homer to end the game at 16-0 to the British team.
London Chromies 17, Oddsox (Ireland) 1
This was another dominant performance by the Chromies that kept them at the top of Pool B in the blistering sunshine at Wiener Neustadt.
A run in each of the two opening innings, including a solo home run by Eric Kelly (back from duty with the Canadian national team) put Chromies 2-0 up thanks to two shut-out innings from Pat Hoey. A further two runs in the third inning involved Hoey again as he looped the ball beyond the glove of Olwen Barrett on first base, and then a bad throw allowed Hoey to score.
The Oddsox clawed back a single run in the bottom of the third inning but Chromies moved well ahead with a series of singles and doubles in the top of the fourth inning that confounded and wore down Oddsox in the heat. RBI doubles from Eric Kelly, Jake Palmer and Moera Flett, plus a two-RBI home run from Danny Gunn, put Chromies 13-1 up.
And just as the Oddsox thought they might get back into the game, Eric Kelly robbed them at the fence, reaching just over the wall to snag a fly ball.
More smart hitting from the Chromies saw them increase their lead as the Oddsox infield capitulated. But things turned slightly sour in the Chromies’ dugout as they were issued a final warning for smoking in uniform while their game was in progress.
On the positive side, Michaela Sulcova returned from the previous day's injury and took up her position at first base, and the game ended on the mercy rule after another scoreless inning for Oddsox in the bottom of the fifth, with Chromies ahead 17-1.
H2O 14, Chucks (Austria) 5
A good-natured game at dusk saw H2O deliver a fine win over the tournament host team to finish second in Pool A.
The Chucks, goaded on by their vociferous home support, immediately got on the board with a two-out home run from Jose Ruez. H2O answered with a two-run blast from Chris Yoxall, and the score stayed at 2-2 as both teams fielded tightly over the first two innings. The H2O outfield had to work hard as the Chucks probed, but Neil Selvester did a good job of containing everything directed toward left field.
In the third inning, with the Chucks’ outfield shallow, H2O capitalised and hit the ball deep over their heads, with Andrez Skabar running hard to put up a two-RBI inside-the-park home run. Pinpoint batting and smart running saw H2O take the score to 9-2 before Chucks’ pitcher Klaus Hankier threw out Claude Snape to end the inning.
The Chucks then upped the aggression in their baserunning to try to recover, but Ina Kaindl was wrong to challenge the arm of Andrez Skabar, who gunned the ball to Kim Miller on third to execute a perfect tag as Kaindl arrived in the dirt.
Well ahead, H2O let go a little and were caught trying to go for broke in the outfield in the fourth inning, though they did bring the score to 10-4. Roger Grooms was pitching strongly again, and was called on twice in succession to deal with comebackers.
H2O then brought in a series of pinch-hitters with great success as Pippa Saul-Harrah, Stewart Butcher and Annie Dubovec all delivered. H2O led by 15-4 at the end of the fifth inning, and that was the final score, thanks to more athleticism from Neil Selvester in left field saving H2O an at-bat.
In the second round that will begin on Thursday, H2O will take on Sparks Mlade Buky from the Czech Republic and Mannheim from Germany, while the Chromies will play a doubleheader against UCE Travellers from Germany and DNAce from the Czech Republic.
STANDINGS
Here are the final first round standings:
POOL A
DNAce (CZE): 5-1
H2O (GBR): 5-1
UCE Travellers (GER): 4-2
Weiner Neustadt Chucks (AUS): 3-3
TNT (IRL): 2-4
Akademics Sofia (BUL): 2-4
Tigtans BSC (BEL): 0-6
POOL B
Chromies (GBR): 6-0
Sparks Mlade Buky (CZE): 4-2
Mannheim (GER): 3-3
Triple Play (GER): 3-3
Afterburners (BEL): 2-4
Linz (AUS): 2-4
Oddsox (IRL): 1-5
Only the top three teams in each group will be involved in Championship playoffs, while the other eight teams will play for places.
Photos by David Morris