By Ian Tomlin
GB Junior Men's Team Manager
Stenlose, Denmark: July 12 -- The GB Junior Men's Fastpitch Team picked up their first win at the European Championships in Stenlose, Denmark in their sixth attempt on Thursday 11 July, defeating Israel 13-3.
Ironically, the mercy rule win killed off the chance that GB could make the playoffs, as GB needed to win by 11 runs to climb into fourth place over Israel, but the mercy rule, combined with some strategy by the Israelis, cut GB off when they had a 10-run lead.
So that's two GB Teams so far in Europe this summer that have failed to make the Page Playoff on runs conceded, as the same fate has befallen the GB Women's Team in Prague (see: http://www.britishsoftball.org/news/view/gb-women-win-but-miss-out-on-the-worlds).
In their second game of the day on Thursday, GB went down 14-4 to Croatia, but the confidence carried over from the win against Israel showed up in the early stages of the game, as GB took an early lead and held off the Croatians for a while.
GB v Israel
The GB Junior Men finally won their first game of the tournament, taking revenge on an earlier defeat to Israel in the first stage of the double round-robin.
The GB Team has won the hearts of the Danish hosts and fans with their ability to keep on going and to keep having fun on the field regardless of the result, and the travelling families and locals got behind the team as they overcame Israel with some excellent play.
Following two nightmare defeats at the hands of the Danish (28-0) and the Czechs (39-0) on Wednesday, the team came into Thursday's games keen to end their barren spell.
Tough start
Israel loaded the bases in the top of the first inning, but GB limited the damage and only two runs were scored. From the start of the game, it was clear that GB pitcher Carl Sharpe was getting his rhythm and that strikes were coming far more easily.
GB’s first at-bat in the bottom of the first inning looked promising and they got a couple of runners on base, but the Israeli outfield took care of anything that came its way and the inning ended without any score.
Both teams went down in order in the second inning and Israel added a further run in the top of the third.
GB takes control
But GB took control of the game in the bottom of the third inning, with everyone in the line-up scoring before a single out was made.
A single by Ben Easdown and a walk to Callum Church set up the opportunity for Matt Tomlin to put down a sacrifice bunt and push the runners into a scoring position, and when Matt reached base as well, a triple by Carl Sharpe bought in the first three runs to tie the score.
Then a single by Jack Broddle and walks to Damon Brown and George Blaskett loaded the bases again and Amit Aswani stepped up to hit a line drive that brought in three more and gave GB a 7-3 lead.
Before the inning was over, Amit Aswani, Iuean Gale and Ben Easdown scored again to give the team a 10-3 lead.
Carl Sharpe’s impressive turn of form continued and once again the Israelis went down in order in the top of the fourth inning, with impressive work from the GB infield.
The finest of margins
GB was now in a position where they needed to win by 11 runs to pass Israel in the tournament standings, but the mercy rule (“10 after four”) could prevent this, thereby denying the GB squad a playoff spot.
GB Head Coach Pat Weightman was trying to get bases loaded to give GB's big hitters a chance to bring home enough runs to secure the required lead. And the team did manage to score two runs, making the score 12-3, and then load the bases for the final hit.
Ben Easdown stepped up, but the count went to 3-0, and a desperate effort to hit the next ball saw Ben caught out. But this set up the next batter, Carl Sharpe, for the big hit that GB needed.
However, the Israeli coaching staff saw what might happen and called time. They then requested that the next two batters walk automatically, forcing in a run, and this meant the ball game was called when the score reached 13-3, giving GB their well-deserved win but denying them the opportunity of progressing to the playoffs.
If you were the Israeli Head Coach, would you have done the same...?
GB v Croatia
Following their first win, the GB squad was looking to continue where they had left off, hoping to cause a shock against the very capable Croatian team.
And GB took the early lead, scoring one in the first inning and holding Croatia scoreless for the first two frames.
Errors creep in
However, things were soon to change, and although the pitching issue of the first three days (too many walks and wild pitches) had virtually vanished, errors started creeping in to GB's infield play.
Poor throws, poor decisions and poor positioning, along with some dropped catches, allowed the Croatians to take a 6-1 lead from which GB would not recover, although a rally in the bottom of the fourth inning brought in four runs.
But the game ended 14-4 to Croatia.