By Mary Murray
ENSCHEDE, Netherlands: 21 July -- The Great Britain Under-15 Women’s National Team dropped their two games against the Czech Republic and Ukraine on 
Wednesday by scores of 30-0 and 12-1 respectively. The Czech Republic is the only team that remains undefeated in the round-robin portion of the tournament.
Due to an administrative error by the British Softball Federation, the Great Britain Under-15 Women’s Team is not able to officially compete in the Under-15 Women’s European Championship and will automatically finish ninth. As such, each game played will officially be scored as a forfeit loss by a score of 7-0. In our coverage of the tournament, we are highlighting the performances of the athletes in Enschede and reporting the games as they are played on the field.
You can see the Federation’s statement regarding this situation here.
Despite the final scores of both games on Wednesday, the strides that the GB Under-15 Women’s Team has taken over the course of the week have been phenomenal.
Czech Republic 30, Great Britain 0
In this game, the Czech Republic’s offense, defense, and pitching proved why they could be in a position to compete for the gold medal on Saturday.
The Czechs jumped out to a 14-run lead in the top of the first inning, purely due to a strong offense. Czech batters managed to tally 12 hits in the first inning alone, six of them for extra bases. The Czech offense ran up 23 hits throughout the game – 14 singles, four doubles, four triples, and a home run.
In the bottom of the first inning, Jenna Thompson walked to lead off for GB and stole second base with one out. However, Jenna wasn’t able to advance past second as GB struggled to adjust to the Czech pitching. An infield fly out and two strikeouts ended the inning.
The Czechs added six more runs in the top of the second inning to get out to a 20-run advantage, and GB fought again at the plate but was retired again on an infield fly out and two strikeouts.
The Czech Republic then added 10 more runs in the top of the third inning.
GB started off the bottom of the third with a walk drawn by Amber Frost, and with Amy Morris up to bat, Amber stole second base on a ball that got away from the catcher. Amy Morris followed with a walk of her own to turn over the order and bring Jenna Thompson to the plate. Jenna flew out to centre field to leave runners on first and second with one out. Anna Kingston then put together a great at-bat and managed to move the runners to second and third with a groundout to second base, leaving GB with their final out to work with. After a great at-bat to fight to extend the game, the Czech pitcher managed to strike out the last GB batter to end the game after three innings.
Ukraine 12, Great Britain 1
Having taken on Ukraine last week on the first day of training camp, GB went into this game with some prior knowledge of the opposition.
Great Britain hit the ground running with one out in the top of the first inning as Anna Kingston reached an infield single behind the bag at third base. With two out, Hope Schultz hit a single to centre field to put runners on first and second, but the runners were stranded as a strikeout ended the inning.
Ukraine then scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning on six hits. A lead-off double began the rally, followed by three consecutive singles, a triple, and another single before GB was able to get out of the inning with two strikeouts and a groundout.
The Ukrainians continued to score in the bottom of the second inning, tacking on six more runs to take an 11-0 lead. Jenna Thompson came in to relieve Cerys Jones in the circle and ended the outburst.
With one out in the top of the third inning, Jenna Thompson hit a deep fly ball to right centre field that got past the diving centre fielder for Ukraine, resulting in an inside-the-park home run to put GB on the board. An infield fly and a fly out to left centre field ended the top of the third, bringing Ukraine back to the plate.
Ukraine added one more run in the bottom of the third inning, taking a 12-1 advantage.
After a foul fly out to the shortstop, Emma Biles drew a walk in the top of the fourth inning. Isla Dodson-Richi moved Emma to second with a hit up the middle that the shortstop snagged and got the out at first base. After being hit by a pitch during her swing, the last GB batter went down on strikes to end the game.
Looking ahead
Great Britain will have their final two-game day of the tournament on Thursday when they take on Lithuania at 2.00 pm (1.00 pm BST) and the host country, The Netherlands, at 6.00 pm (5.00 pm BST).
They will then take on Italy at 2.00 pm (1.00 pm BST) on Friday to end round-robin play, and GB will compete in one further game on Saturday morning.
Scores and standings
Scores on Wednesday at the European Under-15 Women’s Championship were:
Czech Republic 30, GB 0 (3 inns) (scored as a 7-0 forfeit)
Italy 16, Germany 3 (4 inns)
France 13, Lithuania 3 (4 inns)
Ukraine 12, GB 1 (4 inns) (scored as a 7-0 forfeit)
Germany 15, Lithuania 5 (4 inns)
France 15, Croatia 4 (5 inns)
Czech Republic 16, Ukraine 0 (3 inns)
Italy 5, Netherlands 1
Round-robin standings at the end of Day 3 were:
Czech Republic (5-0)
Italy (4-1)
Netherlands (4-1)
France (3-2)
Ukraine (3-2)
Germany (2-4)
Croatia (1-4)
Lithuania (1-4)
GB (1-4) (0-5 due to forfeits)
Photos by David Morris