By Bob Fromer
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Bollate, Italy: 1 July – Getting to the final at the European Women’s Championship was one step too far for the GB Women’s Team, as they lost 8-1 in five innings to Italy this afternoon in the penultimate game of the tournament. But the GB Team has accomplished what they came here to do.
The goal was always to get at least a bronze medal and qualify for next year’s World Championship in Japan, and the GB Women did that on Friday night with their dramatic extra-inning win over the Czech Republic.
Anyone who missed that game should watch it free and on demand here: http://www.playo.tv/event/Womens-Softball-European-Championship-2017-2593.aspx.
This tournament was always going to be part of a progression for the GB Team and programme, building towards the Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier that will be held sometime in the summer of 2019. Now, in 2017, GB is close to the two top teams in Europe – the Netherlands and Italy – but not quite there yet. By 2019, the plan is to have a team that can beat them.
So the final of the 2017 European Women’s Championship on Saturday evening, as everyone expected, was another meeting between the Dutch and the Italians, as most European finals have been (the one recent exception was in 2009, when GB played the Dutch in the final in Valencia). A brief report on the final is below.
But despite the 8-1 win that Italy ultimately posted against GB today, getting back to the final after being no-hit Friday night by the Dutch in a 1-0 loss wasn’t as straightforward for the Italians as their score against GB suggests.
Early lead​
GB starter Georgina Corrick controlled the Italians early on, giving up no hits and one walk over the first three innings.
Meanwhile, GB took the lead in the top of the second inning against Italian ace Greta Cecchetti, who pitched for Italy last night and this afternoon and will pitch again this evening in the final.
Hayley D’Avilar led off the GB second inning with a chopped ground ball single down the third base line and was sacrificed to second by Steph Pearce. Chiya Louie took a called third strike on the outside corner for the second out, but DP Amy Moore ran the count to 2-2, then tomahawked a line drive double up the alley in left centre field to drive in Hayley and put GB on the board.
When nothing much stirred for the Italian offense in the bottom of the third inning, you could sense the nervousness in the Italian dugout. The game wasn’t supposed to be going like this.
The worm turns​
But Italy turned the game around in the bottom of the fourth inning as Georgina Corrick and the GB team began to run out of gas, and it only took the Italians two innings to bring proceedings to a mercy rule close.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Italy’s best hitter by far, Erika Piancastelli, smashed a line drive double into the left field corner, and the Italians began to apply the pressure and thereby made themselves some luck.
The next batter, Giulia Longhi, smashed a ball back at Georgina Corrick that caromed away towards shortstop, and Italy had runners on the first and third. Now Marta Gasparato put a squeeze bunt down the third base line and Piancastelli slid home well ahead of the flip from Chiya Louie to Steph Pearce and the attempted tag. Italy had tied the score.
There was a brief respite for GB as right fielder Aubrey Peterson made a fine running catch on Priscilla Brandi’s line drive that was headed for the right centre field gap. But then Ambra Collina hit a bloop single that fell in left field to give Italy the lead, and Elisa Cecchetti’s single up the middle produced two more runs. Suddenly, Italy was ahead 4-1.
Things were beginning to unravel for GB, and Lara Buila’s perfect push bunt to second base and an error by Sydney Brown trying to make a tough short-hop play on a ground ball by Laura Vigna loaded the bases.
But Georgina Corrick struck out Lara Cecchetti swinging at a good rise ball to bring the frame to a close.
The last hurrah
Aubrey Peterson put up some resistance in the top of the fifth inning with a two-out single up the middle, but Kendyl Scott fouled out on a fine catch by Italian third base player Giulia Longhi, and all too soon, the Italians were back in to bat.
The first batter in the bottom of the fifth inning was the scary Erika Piancastelli, and she slammed a long drive over the fence in left field on a high inside pitch for a home run and a 5-1 Italian lead.
After two of the next three hitters singled, sandwiched around a foul line drive caught by Lauren Evans outside first base for the first out, Carling Hare came in to pitch for GB, and Georgina Corrick left the field to a deserved round of applause.
Carling retired the first batter she faced, DP Ambra Collina, on a pop fly to shortstop Sydney Brown. But then Carling hit Elisa Cecchetti with a pitch to load the bases and Lara Buila smashed another ball back through the circle that Carling could only deflect towards shortstop while a run scored.
The next batter was leadoff hitter Laura Vigna, and she drove a soft line drive into centre field, driving in Priscilla Brandi and Elisa Cecchetti with the runs that brought the score to 8-1 and ended the game on the “seven after five” mercy rule.
Summing up
The GB Women have finished this tournament with a 9-3 record, won the bronze medal, secured a place in Japan next year and lost only to Italy (twice) and to the Netherlands.
In the European pecking order, after finishing fifth in both 2013 and 2015, GB has moved back ahead of Russia and the Czech Republic and is now chasing the perennial two European powerhouse teams that have won every European Women’s Championship ever played, going back to 1979 (going into this evening’s final, Italy has won 10 times and the Dutch nine).
So what GB has accomplished at this tournament is a very fine achievement, and as new GB pitching coach Tina Whitlock said afterwards, “There is so much here to build on.” And this is not mention a group of excellent players from last year’s European Junior Championship-winning GB Under-19 Team, who will soon be competing for places on the senior squad – and they beat Italy’s Juniors twice last summer on the way to their gold medal.
So the GB future is bright – but what this team really needs to take the next step is funding, something that all our main rivals in Europe have. It’s unlikely that money is going to come from UK Sport, despite this week’s public call by 11 unfunded Olympic and Paralympic sports for the agency to change its approach and give every sport at least some baseline funding (see: http://www.baseballsoftballuk.com/news/view/olympic-and-paralympic-sports-come-together-to-challenge-uk-sports-funding).
If money could come from somewhere, the GB Women and Under-19 players could get together more often to train and compete and become tighter and more effective as a team. Some additional sport science support wouldn’t go amiss either.
People on the GB Management Committee and at the BSF and BSUK are doing all they can to try to find support for the GB Softball programme, but it’s not easy to come by in the current climate. Anyone who can help or who has realistic ideas for finding money should contact GB Women’s Team Manager Simon Mortimer (simon.mortimer@britishsoftball.org).
But that’s for the future. For now, let’s celebrate a GB Women’s Team that played some excellent softball here this week, bonded and played as a team, achieved their goal and took a big step on the road towards Tokyo 2020.
Tournament final
Shockingly, there have now been 20 European Women's Fastpitch Championships played, including the one that finished today, and either Italy or the Netherlands have won every single one of them. In fact, only five other countries have ever played in a final at this tournament: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Russia, Greece and Great Britain.
Today's final was won in a canter by the Netherlands, by a score of 7-1, and it evened up the all-time series at 10 wins for each country.
The Dutch virtually ended the game in the bottom of the first inning when they knocked the Italian ace, Greta Cecchetti, out of the game and scored three runs. Cecchetti had trouble finding the plate, walking two, giving up two singles and getting only one out from the six batters she faced before the Italians brought in Illaria Cacciamani, who pitched into the fifth inning, with Alice Nicolini finishing up the game.
The Dutch scored off all the rest of their runs off Cacciamani: one more in the second inning, two in the third and a final run in the fifth.
Ginger de Weert started for the Netherlands and didn't allow a run or a hit in 2.1 innings of work, though she did give up a walk and hit two batters. With one out and no one on in the Italian third inning, veteran Dutch pitcher Rebecca Soumeru came in for de Weert, and finished up the game.
The only run the Italians scored came just after Soumeru entered, when she walked her first hitter, Marta Gasparoto, and then gave up a double, inevitably, to Erika Piancastelli. But after that, Soumeru changed speeds effectively, as she has done throughout her career, and kept the Italians off balance.
So it was an entirely one-sided final, with the Dutch getting 11 hits to three for Italy. Three of the Dutch hits came from shortstop and lead-off hitter Britt Vonk, who had two singles, a walk and a massive home run to right field in four at-bats. Chantal Versluis had three singles and Virginie Anneveld contributed two walks.
It was a joyful time for Italy when they won the last European Women's Championship on Dutch turf in 2015, their first win since 2007. But today the Dutch paid them back in kind.
Final placings
Final placings for the 23 teams that played in the 2017 European Women's Championship were as follows:
1 -- Netherlands
2 -- Italy
3 -- Great Britain
4 -- Czech Republic
5 -- Russia
6 -- Greece
7 -- Spain
8 -- Sweden
9 -- Austria
10 -- France
11 -- Germany
12 -- Poland
13 -- Ukraine
14 -- Belgium
15 -- Ireland
16 -- Croatia
17 -- Slovakia
18 -- Switzerland
19 -- Bulgaria
20 -- Denmark
21 -- Israel
22 -- Hungary
23 -- Lithuania