by Bob Fromer
Rosmalen, Holland: July 24 -- Two years ago, 
when the GB Junior (Under-19) Women's Fastpitch Team played the Czech Republic in the opening game of the European Junior Championships in Vienna, the Czechs won easily, 15-0.
But that was then and this is now, and in 2012, GB was confronted with a Czech Republic team that was absolutely there for the taking -- except that GB failed to take them.
The result, instead, was a 4-1 GB loss that means the Czechs win Group C, GB will be second and, as a result, will have stronger opponents to contend with when the playoff round-robin begins tomorrow. In all likelihood, GB will play the Netherlands at 1.30 pm tomorrow afternoon.
Bad luck
But as well as leaving 10 runners on base to six for the Czechs, 
giving the Czechs two of their runs on errors, and losing at least a run and maybe more through baserunning mistakes, GB had some bad luck as well. Pitcher Carling Hare began to develop earache yesterday, and this morning it was worse, which meant she was unable to pitch (though she did bat as the Designated Player and had two hits, driving in the lone GB run).
Carling might have dominated a relatively weak Czech line-up, but instead it was Ellie Pamenter who pitched the full game for GB -- and Ellie did a fine job, holding the Czechs to two earned runs on seven hits and giving up only two walks, both in the final inning when she was clearly tiring.
Ellie pitching instead of Carling was just one of many "might have beens" in this game, but the biggest of them all was GB's failure to turn a number of promising scoring situations into runs.
Lost opportunities
That began in the very first inning when GB second base player Sara Robb singled to right field with one out, took second on an errant attempt to throw her out at first by right fielder Vendula Nesvadbova, and went to third when Carling Hare dropped a hit into shallow right field but was thrown out by Nesvadvova. Charlotte Wells then drew a walk, but with Susie Hall at bat, Charlotte was out for leaving first base too early.
The second blown opportunity came in the third inning when catcher Jodie Rushin led off the inning with a bouncer back to Czech starting pitcher Katerina Lapova, only to see Lapova throw wildly past first base. Jodie wound up on second and went to third when Amy Wells beat out a bouncer to short. When Sara Robb walked, the bases were loaded with one out. The next batter, Carling Hare, drove a fly ball into the gap in right centre field, and Vendula Nesvadbova made the catch, but slid to her knees in doing so. That should, of course, have produced a run on a sacrifice fly, but Jodie Rushin had failed to tag up, had to return to third base, and thus failed to score. Charlotte Wells then bounced out to second to end the inning, and a massive opportunity was gone, especially as Czech teams traditionally struggle when they fall behind.
For GB, the opportunities just kept on coming, and the next one was in the top of the fourth. Ellie Pamenter doubled to right centre field with one out, Chloe Wigington was hit by a pitch and both runners moved up on a passed ball. But Jodie Rushin grounded to first base player Barbora Nouzakova and Holly Strachan popped out to second to end the inning.
Price to pay
Spurning that many opportunities to take the lead was tempting fate, and GB duly paid the price in the bottom of the fourth inning as the Czechs took a 2-0 lead after Ellie Pamenter retired the first two Czech hitters on bouncers to Amy Wells, who had a fine game at shortstop, and Chloe Wigington at third.
Aneta Ackermanova then singled up the middle, Barbora Nouzakova singled to right, and both runners moved up when Vicky Keswick bobbled the ball in right field, then threw too high and to the wrong base in throwing back to the infield. Ellie Pamenter threw two strikes past Vendula Nesvadbova, but the next pitch was pushed into right field for another single, scoring both runs. Nesvadbova was tagged out trying to take second on the throw home on a fine peg from Jodie Rushin to Amy Wells.
GB turned their back on another scoring chance in the top of the fifth when Carling Hare hit a booming triple to right-centre field with two out and Charlotte Wells drew her second walk of the game. But Sus Hall popped out to second base.
The Czechs then added a single run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Ellie Pamenter threw wildly past third on a delayed double steal and another in the sixth on a sacrifice fly -- though Ellie Pamenter did extremely well to get out of a bases-loaded no out situation giving up just the one run.
New pitcher
The Czechs had moved Tereza Krbcova from shortstop to pitcher when GB came to bat in the sixth inning, and despite a lack of pace and movement from Krbcova, GB only had one runner reach base on a walk.
And when GB did begin to adjust to the slower speed and get to Krbcova in the seventh inning, it was too little too late. Sara Robb singled up the middle with one out, went to second on a passed ball and scored when Carling Hare drove a sharp single into left centre field. But Charlotte Wells hit the first pitch she saw to the centre fielder and Susie Hall bounced into a force play to end the game.
Frustration
The road to the Page Playoffs and a qualification spot for the World Junior Championships in 2013 is still there for GB, but it will be a harder road because of the failure to take this very winnable game against the Czechs. "In one sense, it's understandable," Head Coach Liz Knight said afterwards. "Our players rarely get to play competitive games, and the experience you need to put games like this away just isn't there."
That's certainly true, but in a short tournament with a bunch of good teams in contention for the major prizes, chances have to be taken. What this GB Junior team needs to do is not think that a 4-1 loss to the Czechs in 2012 is a big improvement on a 15-0 loss in 2010. Instead, they should be seething with frustration that they didn't put this game into the win column.
Blowout games
The European Softball Federation's preference for large, all-inclusive tournaments instead of the A Pool and B Pool competitions they had before 2010 means that there are going to be plenty of blowout mercy rule games in the initial round-robin, and the opening day yesterday had its share.
Italy beat Denmark 16-1, Russia downed Belgium 10-0, the Netherlands slaughtered Lithuania 25-0, Germany won 10-0 over Ukraine, GB hammered Israel 14-0 and the Czech Republic piled it on even more against the Israelis later in the day, 22-0.
In contests that had more of a resemblance to softball games, Croatia outlasted France 17-10, Netherlands were surprisingly gentle with Belgium at 8-0, Germany beat Spain 8-4, but Spain came back to beat Austria 12-2.
The ESF seems happy to live with these kinds of games (in last year's European Women's Championship, 28 of the 40 first round games were mercy rule results) for the sake of larger events that can attract more public and media attention (as well as costing host countries or clubs a lot more money). On whether the teams share their enthusiasm for these kinds of games, the jury is allegedly still out.