by Bob Fromer
Pardubice, Czech Republic: August 1 – A hard-fought 10-7 
win this morning over a surprisingly resilient Austrian team, and then a crushing 20-1 defeat of the Irish team Dodder Dynamoes this afternoon have put the Chromies firmly at the top of the round-robin standings in the 2012 European Slowpitch Cup.
Chromies have the competition's only undefeated record at 4-0, and at the bottom of the table, only the Sunville Tigers from Belgium have failed to win a game and stand at 0-4.
Between them are six teams that are all capable of finishing in the top four and securing a Page Playoff place, and competition among those teams is going to be fierce over the next two days.
Chromies will want to keep winning to ensure that they finish first or second in the round-robin standings, which means that they can lose once in the Page Playoff and remain in the competition. The teams that occupy the third and fourth positions don't have that luxury.
Chromies v Askoe Linz Bandits
Yesterday, Chromies scored 39 runs in beating 
the Czech team DNAce and the German UCE Travellers, but it took a long time for the bats to warm up this morning against the Austrian Askoe Linz Bandits.
The Bandits, also undefeated after Day 1, were coming off a thrilling come-from-behind win on Tuesday evening against the host Czech team Pasos Pardubice, and turned up to play the Chromies on a high. After holding Chromies scoreless in the top of the first, the Austrians quickly put a pair of runs on the board without the benefit of a hit. Chromies starter Senan Dormer walked Austrian leadoff hitter Joan Capellan, and two Chromies errors did the rest.
Chromies cut the gap to 2-1 with a run in the top of the second inning when Senan Dormer doubled in Eric Kelly, but the British team went down in order in the top of the third and the Austrians scored another pair in the bottom of the inning, again thanks to two Chromies errors plus base hits by Joan Capellan and Ines Daill.
“It's a seven inning game,” said Chromies Co-Manager Doug Clouston after Chromies again failed to score in the top of the fourth. But the Chromies had stopped making errors on defense, and the Austrians had stopped scoring, and it was almost inevitable that the Chromies were going to hit at some point.
That point came in the top of the fifth when a three-run rally keyed by the Chromies' women tied the score. Natalie Bailey, Moe Flett and Vicky McKendrick had the only Chromies hits, but the Austrian defense committed two errors to help the rally along.
The Austrians loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth inning without scoring, and after that, the Chromies started to pull away.
Two runs in the top of the sixth made the score 6-4 and came about on singles by Eric Kelly, Natalie Bailey and Senan Dormer, with the Austrians making the classic mistake of chasing fast baserunners with throws, which just gives the offense extra bases.
Four more runs in the top of the seventh made the score 10-4, and seemingly made the game safe. Brett Gibbens led off the inning as a pinch-hitter and promptly drove his second home run of the tournament over the fence in left, and then Vicky McKendrick singled, Michael O'Sullivan ripped a double to right, and Danny Gunn blooped an RBI single into centre.
But the Austrians had one more at-bat, and they refused to give up. Jose Dominguez singled with one out, and then Senan Dormer gave the Austrians a helping hand by losing the strike zone. Dawon Millwood and Manuel Capellan walked, Nadine Schondorfer singled, Roland Trawogen walked, and suddenly the score was 10-7 and the tying run was at the plate.
Off came Senan Dormer, in came David Lee, and five pitches later the game was over as Nastasja Wintig popped out and the dangerous Joan Capellan grounded back to David Lee.
It was a third straight win for the Chromies, but the Austrians bounced back a couple of hours later by coming from behind again in the bottom of the seventh for a walk-off 6-5 win over the luckless Sunville Tigers from Belgium. So the Austrians will have at least a share of second place, at 3-1, by the end of the day.
Chromies v Dodder Dynamoes
In the afternoon game against Dodder Dynamoes from Ireland, and in contrast to the morning, the Chromies came out blazing with a nine-run first inning, dried up a bit in the middle of the game, but scored six more in the top of the seventh to crush the Irish team 20-1.
The Dynamoes never managed to string any hits together against David Lee, scored their only run thanks to an error in the bottom of the third inning, and generally had an impotent game at the plate, with 11 singles but no extra-base hits.
For the Chromies, Brett Gibbens crushed two imperious home runs to left field, plus a double, but everyone contributed in a 24-hit attack. Eric Kelly had four hits including a towering home run of his own to left field, David Lee had a pair of doubles, Danny Gunn had four hits and Vicky McKendrick had three.
In games like this, the Chromies' 12-batter attack can just feel relentless, and it certainly felt that way to the Dynamoes, and to both Irish pitchers, John Austin and Derek Ward.
Results and Standings
Results on Day 2 were:
UCE Travellers (GER) 20, Sunville Tigers (BEL) 5
Chromies 10, Askoe Linz Bandits (AUS) 7
Lisicke (SLO) 14, DNAce (CZ) 6
Pasos Pardubice (CZ) 7, Dodder Dynamoes (IRE) 6
Askoe Linz Bandits 6, Sunville Tigers 5
Chromies 20, Dodder Dynamoes 1
Lisicke 10, UCE Travellers 9
Pasos Pardubice 14, DNAce 13
So Chromies top the table tonight at 4-0, with Askoe Linz Bandits and Lisicke from Slovenia at 3-1. UCE Travellers from Germany and the hosts Pasos Pardubice, who came from 10-0 down to defeat fellow Czechs DNAce, are each 2-2.
Meanwhile, Dodder Dynamoes, who are used to fighting for the title in the European Slowpitch Cup, are 1-3 and will have to win all their remaining games to have a chance of making the playoffs, as will Czech league champions DNAce, also 1-3.
The Dynamoes have lost two games by a score of 7-6, to Lisicke and Pasos Pardubice, and they may rue those losses by the time the round-robin ends.