By Bob Fromer
Rosmalen, Netherlands: 19 July – The GB Women’s Fastpitch Team put two quick wins in the bank on the first day of play at the European Women’s Championships – a 15-1 win over Slovakia in the morning and a much tighter 5-1 win over Switzerland in the afternoon.
In the morning game, GB banged out a bunch of extra-base hits and took advantage of some key Slovakian errors to put up eight runs in the top of the first inning, then finished things off with five more in the top of the fifth. A full report on this game is below.
GB v Switzerland
In the afternoon, GB went through the entire game against Switzerland without anyone striking out against Swiss starter Irene Buhler, who pitched the first two innings, and Leandra Simitovich, who pitched the last five. But what GB batters did instead was put a huge number of long, deep fly balls into play, all against a stiff breeze blowing straight in from left centre field, and all but one of them ended up in Swiss gloves.
The one that didn’t – a long blast that even Swiss centre fielder Nadja Lehmann couldn’t run down -- was a double hit by GB right fielder Chloe Wigington in the bottom of the fourth inning, and it drove in Lauren Evans, who had walked. At that point, GB only had a 2-1 lead against a team we were supposed to beat more easily, and the tension among GB supporters was building. With a game against Italy to come on Monday night, GB couldn’t afford any slip-ups against a team seeded below them.
But Chloe’s hit gave GB a bit more margin and broke the tension, especially when Chloe slid home with a fourth GB run later in the inning on Amy Moore’s groundout to third.
With the score now at 4-1, the game felt a lot safer, mainly due to the excellent pitching of GB starter Carling Hare, who gave up the lone Swiss run in the top of the first inning but nothing thereafter. Kori Waugh pitched the final two innings in relief, retiring six of the seven hitters she faced.
In the earlier game, against Slovakia, Carling Hare had thrown three shutout one-hit innings, while Georgina Corrick gave up just a single run in a two-inning relief stint.
So GB had excellent performances today from all three of their pitchers, and also played crisp and aggressive defense – no more so than when catcher Steph Pearce picked a Swiss runner off third base to end the one inning in which Switzerland mounted a genuine threat, with runners on second and third.
The only other scoring in the Swiss game came at the beginning and the end of the contest.
In the top of the first inning, Carling Hare hit Nadja Lehmann with a pitch, a sacrifice moved her to second, and she scored when Swiss catcher Jessica Roelli slapped a single to right field – the only hit that the Swiss got in the game.
But GB came out all guns blazing in the bottom of the first. Amy Moore led off with a single to left field, Hayley D’Avilar singled to centre and Alicja Wolny singled to right, driving in Amy with the tying run. Hayley scored on Sarah Craig’s bouncer to second to give GB the lead and when Nicol Ratel singled to left, it felt like more runs would follow.
But the back of the inning was broken when Alicja Wolny was called out for leaving third too early on Nicole’s hit, and after that, it was a story of lots of GB baserunners and lots of long fly balls, but nothing else on the scoreboard until Chloe Wigington broke the spell.
The final GB run came in the bottom of the sixth inning when Chloe was hit by a pitch with two out, moved to second on a walk to Amy Wells and scored on Amy Moore’s second hit of the game, another single to left field.
GB v Slovakia
Earlier in the day, on a cool and cloudy morning with rain never far away, the GB Women eased into the 2015 European Championships with a 15-1 five-inning mercy rule win over Slovakia.
GB put the game away early with eight runs on five hits, a walk and two Slovakian errors in the top of the first inning, and after that it was a matter of cruise control.
GB bats went quiet after for a while after that first-inning outburst, but two more runs in the top of the fourth gave the British a 10-0 lead, and the game would have been over after four innings had not Slovakia pulled a run back in the bottom of the inning on a triple and a single off GB relief pitcher Georgina Corrick.
That meant the mercy rule was averted for the moment and the game was forced into a fifth inning. But that just gave GB a chance to score more runs, and they promptly added five while the Slovakians were unable to reply.
GB starter Carling Hare pitched the first three innings, gave up just one hit and struck out six in an efficient start to a tournament in which both she and the two other GB pitchers, Georgina Corrick and Kori Waugh, may have to throw a lot of innings. If GB gets through to the Page Playoffs, they may have to play as many as 12 games in seven days.
If the GB team had any nerves in opening the tournament after just a few days of training, it wasn’t evident in their quick start against Slovakian starting pitcher Miriama Gombikova. Amy Moore opened the game with a sharp double to right centre field, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when the Slovakian second base player juggled Hayley D’Avilar’s ground ball.
One error quickly followed another as Slovakia right fielder Lenka Gunisova dropped Alicja Wolny’s fly ball. Sarah Craig, who was GB’s most consistent hitter in their three warm-up games earlier in the week, then drove a two-RBI single to left field and GB was off and running. Georgina Corrick also singled and later in the inning Lauren Evans stroked a single up the middle to drive in two more. Amy Moore’s sacrifice fly and a single by Hayley D’Avilar, both batting for the second time in the inning, completed the scoring and GB led 8-0.
GB’s two fourth inning runs were scored without the benefit of a hit, as Slovakia committed two more errors.
But the five runs GB scored in the top of the fifth off Slovakian relief pitcher Elisabeth Gajarska featured another single by Sarah Craig, a line drive double to left field by Kat Golik and a booming triple to the left centre field fence by Lauren Evans.
GB Head Coach Hayley Scott said, “It was a good start for us, especially from a hitting point of view. We were able to get everyone into the game, and everyone contributed to get us the runs we needed.”
Looking ahead
The key game in Pool D will be coming up tomorrow (Monday) at 8.45 pm when GB plays their nemesis team, Italy. GB and Italy are likely to be the teams that make the playoffs from Pool D, but the game between them will determine who wins the group and who comes second. The difference is important, because the group winner will have a much easier schedule in the second round.
On Tuesday, GB will finish pool play against Greece at 1.45 pm, and the Greeks, who beat Slovakia 6-4 this afternoon, will need to be handled carefully.
But for now, for the GB Women, so far, so good.
Other results
Results so far on the first day of the tournament are:
POOL A
Germany 15, Denmark 0
Sweden 20, Israel 3
Netherlands 10, Germany 0
POOL B
France 9, Croatia 1
Russia 2, Spain 1
France 9, Poland 2
POOL C
Austria 16, Ireland 0
Czech Republic 15, Ukraine 1
Ukraine 10, Slovenia 0
POOL D
GB 15, Slovakia 1
Italy 11, Switzerland 0
Greece 6, Slovakia 4
GB 5, Switzerland 1