By Bob Fromer
Oklahoma City, USA: 9 August – The GB Under-19 Women’s Fastpitch Team got off to a great start today at the 2015 WBSC Junior Women’s World Championships in Oklahoma City with an 8-1 mercy rule win over Colombia.
The early end to the contest, which started just after noon local time in 38-degree heat, allowed GB to get off the field in a little over an hour and a quarter and conserve energy for tomorrow, when the team will play Argentina at 11.00 am Oklahoma time (5.00 pm in the UK) and then take on New Zealand at 3.30 pm (9.30 pm in Britain).
These two games will be crucial to GB’s chances of making the playoffs, with tough games against Japan and Canada to come on Tuesday and a final pool game against China on Wednesday. Three wins could get GB into the playoff round, and today’s game against Colombia got them off on the right foot.
All games from the Junior World Championships are webstreamed free of charge at this address: http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Softball/Events/2015/August/09/XI-WBSC-Junior-Womens-World-Championship/Media/Live-Streaming.
Dominance
GB batters pounded out 12 hits off Colombian starter Jalena Arthur, with first base player Lauren Evans and left fielder Amie Hutchison each going 3-for-3, while catcher Emmilee Blowers had a walk and a pair of doubles. Shortstop Chelsea D’Avilar, right fielder Laura Hirai, pitcher Georgina Corrick and third base player Chelsie Robison had GB’s other hits, and Chelsie, Amie and Emmilee had two RBIs each.
Meanwhile, in the circle, 16-year-old Georgina Corrick, who pitched well for the GB Women’s Team at the recent European Championships in Holland, dominated the Colombians, striking out 10 while allowing only four hits and a walk and hitting one Colombian batter.
The only Colombian run, scored in the top of the second inning when GB had already taken a 4-0 lead, came when Franlys Ramirez struck out but reached first base on a passed ball and came home on a triple to right centre field by Maria Fori, the only hard-hit ball the Colombians had in the game.
Although Colombia did have baserunners in every inning, their only other scoring threat came in the top of the fourth, when they managed to get runners to second and third with two outs on a hit batter, a walk, an error and a stolen base. But Georgina Corrick struck out left fielder Martha Ruiz on three pitches to end the inning.
Georgina threw only 78 pitches over five innings, an astonishing 59 of them for strikes, and was constantly ahead of the Colombian hitters, throwing first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 21 batters she faced.
The only area where GB will look to improve on this performance will be in the field, where they committed three errors to Colombia’s one.
Fast start
Colombian second base player Sindy Bolanos led off the game with a sharp single to right field, advanced to second on a ground-out and stole third, but was out attempting to steal home, so the Colombians came up empty in the top of the first inning.
GB then came to bat in the bottom of the first and promptly scored four runs.
Chelsea D’Avilar led off with a single to right field. Laura Hirai fouled out to the catcher, but Lauren Evans singled to centre and Georgina Corrick reached on an infield hit to load the bases. Emmilee Blowers worked a walk on a 3-1 pitch to drive in Chelsea D’Avilar with the first GB run, and Lauren Evans scored when Colombian pitcher Jalena Arthur misplayed Chelsie Robison’s ground ball. Amie Hutchison’s single to centre field scored Georgina Corrick, and Emmilee Blowers followed her home on an errant Colombian throw.
After the Colombians made the score 4-1 with their run in the top of the second inning, GB stretched the lead to 5-1 with a run in the bottom of the third. Emmilee Blowers led off with a double to centre field and scored on Amie Hutchison’s single to left.
GB then made the game safe and crossed the mercy rule threshold with a three-run outburst in the bottom of the fourth inning.
With one out, Laura Hirai singled softly to centre field, stole second and scored when Lauren Evans sliced a hard-hit double between the Colombian centre and right fielders. Georgina Corrick flied out deep to centre field for the second out, with Lauren tagging and moving to third, and Lauren scored on another double to right centre field by Emmilee Blowers. Chelsie Robison then slashed a double of her own down the right field line on the first pitch she saw, scoring Emmilee with the run that GB needed to go seven runs ahead and potentially bring the mercy rule into play.
In the top of the fifth inning, with Colombia needing to score to extend the game, Georgina Corrick struck out leadoff hitter Sindy Bolano to start the inning. However, Sugey Solano reached first on an error and moved to second when Hayley Rodriguez beat out a grounder to the right side of the infield.
A moment later, however, the game was over. Clean-up hitter Heidy Giraldo lined out to Chelsie Robison at third, and Solano had taken off on the hit. Chelsie’s throw to Sian Wigington at second completed the double play, and GB were celebrating a convincing win.
Results
The tournament, with 15 countries competing, is starting off with two round-robin pools, one with seven teams and one with eight. The top four teams from each pool will advance to Championship playoffs.
Results on Sunday 9 August were:
POOL A
GB 8, Colombia 1
Canada 11, China 1
Argentina 12, Colombia 0
Japan 7, New Zealand 0
POOL B
Czech Republic 1, Puerto Rico 0
Australia 5, Italy 2
Mexico 2, Brazil 1
USA 10, Chinese Taipei 0
Standings
Standings after the first day of play are:
POOL A
Japan (1-0)
Canada (1-0)
GB (1-0)
Argentina (1-0)
China (0-1)
New Zealand (0-1)
Colombia (0-2)
POOL B
USA (1-0)
Australia (1-0)
Czech Republic (1-0)
Mexico (1-0)
Chinese Taipei (0-1)
Italy (0-1)
Puerto Rico (0-1)
Brazil (0-1)