By Bob Fromer
Prague, Czech Republic: 12 July – Carling Hare pitched another fine game, and though the offense took a while to get going, the GB Women's Fastpitch Team eventually recorded an efficient a 5-1 victory over Austria today in their final game at the 2013 European Women's Fastpitch Championships.
The win gives Great Britain a final position of fifth in the tournament, with a 6-2 won-lost record for the week. But it will still be a bitter pill to swallow that the team did not make the Page Playoffs and with it qualification for next year's World Championships in the Netherlands.
This was an excellent GB Team – “the best I've ever seen” according to several European softball veterans – and they deserved better.
Solving Lackner
The Austrians, on the other hand, have done better than they expected in this tournament and will relish their sixth place finish.
Much of their success has been down to the pitching of Martina Lackner, who led Austria to three wins in their initial round-robin group and also restricted the Czechs to just three runs and Russia to two, though both games were lost.
So it took the GB batters a while to figure her out. “She throws slow and it's very spinny,” said GB lead-off hitter Amy Moore, and while Lackner did not record a single strikeout in the game, GB hitters were clearly having trouble timing her and were tending to hit the ball on the ground to an Austrian infield that made most of the plays they needed to.
Carling in control
For most of the game, Carling Hare set the Austrians down without too much trouble, giving up only two singles and a walk through the first six innings.
She also did really well in the fourth inning, when with two out and a runner on first, Austria's Caroline Meriaux drove a wicked shot straight back at Carling that hit her in the midriff or the groin area. Carling collapsed, got up, picked up the ball and threw Meriaux out at first to end the inning, and then collapsed again in pain. But she was back out to pitch the fifth and the rest of the game.
In the seventh inning, with the game clearly won and Carling tiring, the Austrians picked up two hits and two walks and scored their lone run on an RBI single by Valentina Cartes – too little and too late.
But the main question as the game progressed was when GB would figure out how to put some offense together against Martina Lackner.
First run
GB eventually took the lead with a single run in the bottom of the third inning.
Naomi Jones led off and hit a little fly ball into right field that Ines Daill dove for but couldn't catch, and Naomi wound up on second with a nice slide. She moved to third on a ground ball to the right side by Karlene Headley-Cooper, and scored when Amy Moore drove a solid single down the left field line.
Four-run cushion
GB made the game safe in the bottom of the fifth with a four-run outburst.
Naomi Jones started things again with one out, singling sharply past Austrian second base player Valentina Cartes. Karlene Headley-Cooper then pushed a perfect bunt between the pitcher and the third base player, and GB had runners on first and second.
Kori Waugh, who had taken over for Amy Moore in left field in the top of the fifth inning, was hit by a pitch, and now the bases were loaded.
But not for long, as Laura Thompson hit a line drive up the gap in left centre field for a double, scoring Naomi and Karlene. Keeli Waugh, pinch-hitting for Sarah Craig, drove a sacrifice fly to left field to score her sister Kori, and Alicja Wolny singled sharply to right field to bring Laura Thompson home.
After that, it was just a matter of playing out the rest of the game.
R&R
The GB Team will take a trip into the centre of Prague this afternoon to see the sights, and will no doubt watch some of the Page Playoff games tomorrow.
The Netherlands, who have won every game they have played so far on the mercy rule (including a 7-0 five-inning win over Russia yesterday) are the overwhelming favourites to win their third straight European Championship and confirm their complete ascendancy in European softball.
The Dutch will play Italy tonight in the Page Playoff 1v2 game, but not many people here are giving Italy much of a chance.
Meanwhile, GB will look to the future. They will request a wild card place at the World Championships from the ISF, but that's a long shot and the answer won't be known until next year. Assuming that doesn't happen, the team will hope to go to the Canada Cup next summer in a year with no European competition, and will hope to keep most of the players from this team together and add some of the promising players who did so well for the GB Under-19s at the recent Junior World Championships in Canada.
But only time will tell how this will all work out.
Last-minute visitor
An unexpected visitor turned up for the GB-Austria game, and everyone on the team who knew her was delighted to see her.
Sara Robb, who played for the GB Women last year at the World Championships and would have been selected both for the GB Juniors and Seniors this year, tore ligaments in her knee in a snowboarding accident last winter at college in Colorado, and is still rehabbing. But Sara is home for the summer with her family in Vienna and was keenly following the progress of the GB Team.
Yesterday, when she realised that GB would play Austria in the fifth-place game, she emailed a detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of all the Austrian players to GB Head Coach Hayley Scott.
But this morning, Sara suddenly had an overwhelming desire to see the team in action. “I was going to the shop to get some milk,” she said, “and then I found myself on the motorway.”
Four hours later, she was at Svoboda Park in Prague. “And don't tell my Dad I'm here!, she said, though since she has her Dad's car, we'll assume he knows!
Sara is hoping to get her fitness back so that she can rejoin the team next year, and everyone connected with GB Softball will be looking forward to it.
Second round results
The final standings in the second round playoff pools are shown below. Groups E and F were the Championship pools; Groups G, H and I were the consolation pools.
The top two teams from Groups E and F will contest the Championship Page Playoffs this afternoon and tomorrow, while the top two teams from groups G and H will have their own Page Playoff to determine what would be called a Plate Winner in Great Britain.
This system, which gives more meaningful games for teams that don't make the Championship playoff, is new for the ESF, and is the result of a proposal made to the 2012 ESF Congress by the British Softball Federation.
Other teams will play off for final placings.
Group E
Italy (2-1)
Czech Republic (2-1)
GB (2-1)
Spain ()-3)
Group F
Netherlands (3-0)
Russia (2-1)
Austria (1-2)
Sweden (0-3)
Group G
Belgium (3-0)
Slovakia (2-1)
Denmark (1-2)
Poland (0-3)
Group H
Germany (3-0)
Ukraine (1-2)
Switzerland (1-2)
Croatia (1-2)
Group I
Israel (1-1)
France (1-1)
Hungary (1-1)