Rosmalen, Holland: July 23 -- GB fastpitch teams rarely
seem to get easy opening games at European Championships, but the GB Junior (U-19) Women's Fastpitch Team expected a win this morning to open the European Junior Championships in Holland, and it duly materialised.
A young and very inexperienced Israeli team proved no match for GB pitcher Carling Hare, who had 10 strikeouts in four innings, and GB scored 14 runs in only three innings to run out easy 14-0 winners in a game called on the mercy rule after Israel went down in order in the top of the fourth.
The win automatically puts the GB Juniors in the playoffs and ensures the team will finish in the top eight in the 15-team tournament, because the only other game GB will play in the opening round robin is tomorrow against the Czech Republic, and the top two teams in the group will go through.
And that will be GB and the Czechs, since the Czechs crushed the Israelis 22-0 this afternoon.
Hits and walks
GB's offense wasn't exactly dominant against Israel starter Shira Lloyd 
and reliever Elisheva Novick, who took over in the second inning -- but then it didn't need to be. And in fairness, after the first inning, there weren't really very many pitches close enough to the plate for GB hitters to swing at.
Great Britain had seven hits, with Amy and Charlotte Wells and Carling Hare getting two apiece and Susie Hall lofting a two-RBI double down the left field in the third inning. But the Israelis pitchers gave GB a huge helping hand with nine walks -- five in a row in the second inning -- plus a hit batter.
And the Israeli defense contributed six errors and made a number of bad decisions on other plays that led to more GB runs.
The tone for the game was set right at the outset when Amy Wells led off with a single to right field, Sara Robb put down a bunt, and the throw to first by Israeli catcher Marianna Fox sailed down the right field line and both GB runners scored.
GB scored three runs in the first inning, five in the second and six more in the third.
Coming up
Tomorrow, GB and the Czech Republic will play at 1.30 pm to see who wins Group C.
This matters, because the group winner will have slightly easier opposition in the second round-robin than the group runner-up.
GB has rarely been able to challenge the Czech Republic at youth level in the past. But could tomorrow be the day?