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Like the Senior GB Women’s Team in the Olympic Qualifier a few weeks ago, a final against a strong Italian team was a game too far for the GB Cubs Under-13 Girls’ Fastpitch Team at the Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy tournament this evening.
The Cubs went down 11-0 to Italy 1 in the final, but the score in no way represented the bulk of the game, which was close through four innings, at which point the Italians held just a 3-0 lead. But in the top of the fifth, the Italians took advantage of the fact that GB pitcher Georgia Wilson had sustained a severely bruised foot after being hit by a pitch, and used the short game and some defensive errors to put eight runs across the plate against Georgia and relief pitcher Amy Morris, a fate that the Cubs certainly didn’t deserve.
Georgia Wilson has pitched her heart out this week, leading the tournament in innings pitched and strikeouts, and the injury made it difficult for her to pitch effectively at the end of the game.
Unfortunately, the Cubs, who had beaten Italy 1 by a score of 1-0 on Friday in an extra-inning thriller, couldn’t really generate much offense in either game, and managed only three hits in the final.
Early chance
Two of those hits came in the bottom of the first inning when the Cubs mounted their only threat against Italy 1’s starting pitcher, Alessandra Marmo, who had taken the loss in Friday’s game but pitched all five innings today.
With two out in the first inning, Cara Edwards and Georgia Wilson had back-to-back singles, but Cara was thrown out trying to steal third to end the rally.
After that, the Cubs had only three other baserunners via two hit batters and a single by Matilde Neri, but never really mounted a threat.
Italians take control
Italy 1 took the lead in the top of the second inning with an un earned run – the Cubs committed five errors in the game to none for the Italians – and scored twice more in the top of the fourth inning on a wild pitch and an RBI groundout to take the score to 3-0.
Those three runs probably would have been enough, and the top of the fifth inning that the Cubs endured, where the Italians had six hits, including an inside-the-park home run by Giorgia Zenari, and benefitted from two GB errors and some wild pitches, was a sad way for the Cubs to end a tournament in which they had played remarkably well.
The Cubs’ second place finish in the competitive Sport Division at the 2019 Massimo Romeo Tournament is by far the best performance by a GB Under-13 Team in the annals of GB softball, and we will look forward to a number of these players progressing through the age group teams and hopefully to the Senior Women’s Team in time.
Congratulations are due to all the players and to Head Coach Jodie Rushin and her staff for a fabulous week!
Final standings
Earlier today, Joudrs Orange beat SaBat Prague 14-4 in the fifth-place game in the Sport Division and Moscovia beat Italy 2 by 10-5 in the bronze medal game. So the final standings in the Sport Division at the 2019 European Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy tournament are:
1 – Italy 1
2 – GB Cubs
3 – Moscovia
4 – Italy 2
5 – Joudrs Orange
6 – SaBat Prague
Final standings in the less competitive Futures Division were:
1 – Kalita (Russia)
2 – Sever Brno (Czech Republic
3 – Molecules (Ukraine)
4 – Turkey
5 – Italy 3
6 – Merklin (Czech Republic
7 – Princ Zagreb (Croatia)
8 – Catalunya (Spain)
9 – Joudrs Navy (Czech Republic)
10 – Joudrs Gray (Czech Republic)
11 – Flanders Academy (Belgium)
Photos by David Morris