News / 9 June 2015

GB Select Team wins the 2015 London Cup

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On the back of a superb two-hit shutout thrown by GB Women’s Team pitcher Carling Hare, confident and aggressive infield defense and an attack that put runners on base in every inning, the GB Select Team won the first international softball tournament to be hosted at Farnham Park, the London Cup, on the weekend of 6-7 June.

Five women’s fastpitch teams played in the tournament, including three from the European Continent: the Danish National Women’s Team, a mixed German and American travel ball team called Stuttgart Select and a French club team, BAT Paris.

But in the end, the final was contested by the two “local” teams – GB Select, a blend of current or former GB Under-19 and GB Women’s Team players, and the British club team London Angels. The result, in probably the best game of a good tournament, was a 4-0 win for GB Select.

This was not the first international women’s fastpitch tournament to be held in the UK -- the London Cup has been run seven times since 2002 in locations as diverse as Barn Elms, Banbury, a US military base in Gloucestershire, Croydon and Richings Park – most recently in 2012.

But this was the first time a women’s fastpitch tournament has been held in this country on high-quality purpose-built pitches, with a full crew of international umpires and with the last two games of the tournament webstreamed live, albeit with a few technical hitches. So it felt like Great Britain, at last, may be on the verge of being able to host official ESF tournaments in a format other than slowpitch.

The final

Faced with dominant pitching in the final, the Angels tried to attack the GB defense by laying down bunts and putting the ball in play, but the young infielders on the GB Select team -- Chelsie Robison at third base, Sian Wigington at second base, Susie Hall at first and 16-year-old catcher Emma Harris -- were up for the challenge and dealt confidently with everything thrown at them.

Meanwhile, for the Angels, pitcher Kim Hannessen allowed 13 hits and had baserunners in every inning, but did a fine job of holding down the scoring by changing speeds, hitting locations and getting outs when she most needed them, striking out four while walking one.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning, when a ringing double by Amy Trask, a groundout and an infield single beaten out by the speedy Laura Hirai created the game’s first run.

Three more runs in the fifth inning on a walk, singles by Sian Wigington, Susie Hall and Amy Trask and a sacrifice fly by Emma Harris sealed the win, as that was always going to be more than enough runs for Carling Hare, who struck out seven and walked only one.

The result will create a lot of confidence for the Under-19 players who are going to World Championships in Oklahoma later this summer and for the GB Women’s Team players who are going to European Championships in Holland.

Stuttgart Select finished third in the tournament, coming from 5-0 down to defeat the Danish National Women’s Team 7-5 in the third place game. So the Danes, who are also going to European Championships in a few weeks’ time, came fourth, while BAT Paris, who had to come to London without their injured #1 pitcher, finished winless and last.

Saturday

Seven round-robin games were played on Saturday, and none of them were particularly close.

BAT Paris were shut out twice, by the London Angels and Denmark, while the biggest surprise of the day was the 16-3 margin by which the Angels beat Stuttgart Select.

That margin was to have repercussions for Stuttgart, because at the close of round-robin play on Sunday, there was a three-way first place tie involving Stuttgart, the Angels and GB Select, all with 3-1 records. But all those runs conceded to the Angels condemned Stuttgart to third place, while GB Select and the Angels progressed to the final.

Saturday’s closest game was the 9-5 win by GB Select over Denmark. GB Under-19 pitcher Amie Hutchison held Denmark largely in check, giving up only one earned run. Meanwhile, GB Women’s Team player Chiya Louie, who played only two games in the tournament, had a double, a home run and a sacrifice fly in three at-bats, good for five RBIs and the winning margin.

Sunday

Sunday started off with a much closer game: a 6-5 win for London Angels over Denmark. Going into the top of the sixth inning behind pitcher Kim Hannessen, the Angels were comfortable with a 5-1 lead. But four Danish hits, two stolen bases and three Angels errors in a long and strange half-inning produced four Danish runs and a tie score.

However, it didn’t take long for the Angels to win the game in the bottom of the sixth. Sylvie Varadi led off with a triple to left centre field and, one out later, came home on a single to left by Michaela Sulcova.

In the final group game, knowing a place in the final was almost secure (unless GB Select could score 19 runs), the Angels gave their substitutes a game and saw GB Select tear into pitcher Leandra Simitovic, scoring two runs in the first inning, five in the second and five more in the fourth. The key blow was a vicious line drive grand slam home run by Carling Hare that shot over the fence in left field in the second inning, but Amie Hutchison had three hits, and Chelsie Robison, Amy Wells and Susie Hall had two hits each.

When the score got to 12-1 in the fourth inning, with five runs scored, two more on base and no outs for GB Select, the Angels started to panic about the possibility of giving up 19 runs and losing their place in the final. So Kim Hannessen came in to pitch and promptly retired the next three hitters to stave off the threat.

Which meant that GB Select and the Angels would meet again in the final.

Pitching

In the end, the GB Select Team won the tournament because they had the best pitching.

Carling Hare, from Canada, has been a member of the GB Women’s Team since 2011 and is currently playing softball in the Dutch League to prepare for European Championships in July. Carling pitched a game-and-a-bit for her Dutch team on Saturday, flew into London Saturday night, and pitched two crucial wins for GB Select on Sunday – the 12-1 drubbing of the Angels in the last game of the round-robin that put the GB Select team on top of the round-robin standings, and then the final.

In 11 innings over two games, the Angels managed just one unearned run and four hits off Carling’s pitching.

But GB Select was only in that position because GB Under-19 pitcher Amie Hutchison pitched all three group games on Saturday, beating the club team BAT Paris and the Danish National Women’s Team before losing to Stuttgart Select in a game where her defense gave the German team too many runs.

Stuttgart Select finished third in the tournament, the Danish National Women’s Team came fourth and BAT Paris finished winless and last.

Awards

Following European Softball Federation tradition, three individual awards were given out along with the team trophies at the end of the tournament. These awards, based on performance during the round-robin phase of the tournament, all went to players on the teams that contested the final.

The Best Batter award went to GB Select and GB Under-19 third base player Chelsie Robison, who hit an astonishing .833 in the four group games.

The Best Pitcher Award, based on earned run average, went to Kim Hannessen from the London Angels.

And the award for Most Valuable Player of the tournament went to GB Select and GB Under-19 player Amie Hutchison, who pitched superbly on Saturday and spent the whole tournament getting key hits for her team.

Thanks

The London Cup was made possible by equal donations from the British Softball Federation and BaseballSoftballUK, while Bob Fromer and Trevor Greenaway-Clissold from BSUK did most of the organisation.

But putting on an international tournament – even a small one – is never easy, and generous help was given from a number of quarters.

BASU Fastpitch Officer David Hurley was the Crew Chief, and marshalled a high-quality group of umpires, including blues who flew in at their own expense from Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden.

The GB Under-16 Team, who will be going to their own European Championships shortly in Sardinia, provided players and team staff to help out with a variety of tournament chores.

With players and umpires needing to be picked up and dropped off throughout the weekend, volunteer drivers Doug Clouston, Phylly Morris-Vincent, Lynda Medwell and Vicky Hall were constantly on the go.

JP Productions produced the webstreaming, and Erik Janssen created most of the ads and announcements shown in between the action and filmed interviews with players and others on the day. Excellent commentary on both games was provided by Steve Fullan.

A Touch of Class provided food and drink during the day and Slough Town Football Club hosted a meal for the teams and umpires on Saturday evening.

Finally, players and staff from the GB Under-19 Women’s Team, faced with a hugely expensive trip to the ISF Junior World Championships in August, baked a range of softball-themed and delicious cakes and biscuits, and raised over £300.

Round-robin scores

SATURDAY
Stuttgart Select 11, Denmark 3
GB Select 11, BAT Paris 4
London Angels 16, Stuttgart Select 3
London Angels 10, BAT Paris 0
GB Select 9, Denmark 5
Stuttgart Select 11, GB Select 6
Denmark 11, BAT Paris 0

SUNDAY
London Angels 6, Denmark 5
Stuttgart Select 11, BAT Paris 0
GB Select 12, London Angels 1