By Lee Grafton
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Montegranaro, Italy: 16 July – On a rain-shortened final day at the European Men’s Fastpitch Championships on Saturday, the GB Men’s Team rounded off their tournament with a 2-1 loss to Netherlands to finish fifth overall.
This was an excellent achievement for a mostly young and home-based GB team, and gives the programme something to build on for the future.
Because of the rain that cancelled all games on Friday and caused a delayed start on Saturday due to flooded fields, a number of placing games had to be wiped off the tournament schedule, with semi-finals and a final replacing the traditional Page Playoff.
Two games played on Saturday morning – Denmark’s 6-1 win over Belgium and GB’s loss to the Netherlands – determined semi-finalists, and the only games now left on the schedule are the semi-final (Czech Republic v Netherlands) and then the final, where the winner will play Denmark.
GB v Netherlands
This game began at 11.00 am local time with the pitch still heavy underfoot from the rain and a drizzle falling, which made hitting and running difficult.
The game went the full seven innings and GB were very unlucky not to progress, having out-hit the Dutch by 5-2. But GB left six runners on base over the seven innings, and both Dutch runs were unearned.
Two veteran pitchers, James Darby for Great Britain and Arjan Baanen for the Netherlands, traded strikeouts through the first three innings until a dropped fly ball in the outfield in the bottom of the third, followed by a throwing error, allowed a Dutch run to score.
GB loaded the bases in reply in the top of the fourth inning on a walk, a hit batter and an infield error, but were unable to convert.
Another GB throwing error allowed the Netherlands to score a second run in the bottom of the fourth inning, but after that the young GB team dug deep and did not concede another run.
In the top of the fifth, GB pulled a run back to cut the score to 2-1. Michael Lee led off the inning with a single up the middle and Ieuan Gale, pinch-running for Michael, advanced to second on a sacrifice by Ryan Martin and scored on a single by Josh Peat.
But that was as good as it got. In the sixth inning, Curt Taylor singled with two out but was cut down trying to steal second, and GB went down in order in the top of the seventh to bring their tournament to an end.
James Darby and Arjan Baanen both pitched complete games, with Darby striking out 12 Dutch hitters in six innings while Baanen struck out nine GB hitters over seven frames.
Summary
GB has had a good learning tournament for a young team. Mental errors have been reduced over the course of the week while concentration in the batting box has improved.
After the final game, Dutch Head Coach Ben Pasten broke into the GB de-brief to compliment the young players on their progression, a sentiment echoed by several other coaches throughout the week.
With the World Championships coming up next year in Whitehorse, Canada, the hope is that this group can stay together, build on the experience and, with further training over the winter, acquit themselves well on softball’s biggest stage.
Standings
The defending champions Czech Republic had a real scare against the Netherlands in their semi-final, squeaking by with a 5-4 win. But the Czechs beat Denmark 7-1 in the final to retain their title.
Here are the final placings:
1 – Czech Republic
2 – Denmark
3 – Belgium
4 – Netherlands
5 – Great Britain
6 – Israel
7 – Croatia
7 – Italy
9 – Germany
9 -- Sweden