By Bob Fromer
Prague, Czech Republic: July 11 – Carling Hare pitched the best game of her GB career and a four-run rally in the sixth inning took GB from 3-1 down to a 5-3 win over the Czech Republic today in the playoff round at the European Women's Championships.
But because the Czech Republic unexpectedly beat Italy last night, GB, Italy and the Czechs all wound up with 2-1 records in the playoff round – and only two of the three teams could go through to the Page Playoff and World Championship qualification.
And GB was the one to miss out on the basis of two more runs conceded than the Czechs in games among the tied teams. GB came into this game knowing that they had to win by four runs or more to go through, and that tall order was agonisingly just a bit more than they were able to manage.
After the game, the GB coaches asked the ESF to consider a clause in the Competition Regulations published on the ESF website that says that teams placed second and third in quarter-final groups qualifying for the Page Playoff shall play an extra game to decide second place.
Apparently, that “extra game” was removed from the Competition Regulations in 2012, but the new regulations are not on the website, nor is any information about the change. But after considering GB's case, the ESF President and the Tournament Technical Commissioner decided that nothing could be done.
Game of her life
Nineteen-year-old Carling Hare (she'll turn 20 next week) has been pitching for GB for the past two years in the shadow of the legendary Stacie Townsend. But with Stacie retired, Carling has had to assume the role of the staff ace, and she has mostly pitched well throughout the tournament.
But she has never pitched as well for GB as she did today, and in a game with everything on the line.
What's more, she survived a top of the first inning in which a collective attack of nerves and mental errors on the part of the GB defense allowed the Czechs to load the bases with no one out. GB dreams could have been over before the game had really got started.
But Carling hung very tough and got the next three outs on a grounder and two infield pop-ups to keep the Czechs off the scoreboard.
Over the course of her complete game win, Carling gave up only four hits, walked one and struck out two – though she also twice hit lead-off hitter Sabine Borecka with pitches, Mostly, Carling pitched to contact, and after that nervous first inning, the GB defense was very sound behind her, with the infield handling a succession of Czech bunts and slaps.
Czechs take the lead
Nevertheless, GB saw their required run total increase when the Czechs took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning.
Sabine Borecka led off and was hit by a pitch for the second time. Dina Pfeiferova sacrified Borecka to second, Lucie Petraskova walked and both runners moved up on a passed ball. Czech clean-up hitter Eliska Pojerova then laid down a sacrifice bunt that brought Borecka home, and Lenka Jaklova hit a ground ball single into the hole between third and short that scored Petraskova.
But GB came right back to halve the deficit in the bottom of the third. Catcher Steph Pearce led off and was hit by a pitch from the Czechs' left-handed starter Lucie Marsikova, then Kori Waugh bounced a single between third and short. Karlene Headley-Cooper moved both runners up with a sacrifice bunt and Amy Moore drove in the run with a sacrifice fly to centre field.
That was enough for Czech's peripatetic Head Coach Andre Prins, who took out Lucie Marsikova and brought in another left-hander, Jitka Horova, who got Sarah Craig to hit into a fielder's choice to end the inning.
GB was on the scoreboard, but had really needed more from a two-on-no-out situation.
More frustration
There was more frustration for GB in the bottom of the fourth inning. Alicja Wolny led off with a ground ball single to right field, and with one out, Sarah Jones bounced a single to left. Steph Pearce's sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position, but Kori Waugh, after a long at-bat, looked at a called third strike across the knees and GB had once again failed to score.
Things got worse when the Czechs added another run in the top of the fifth. Dina Pfeiferova led off the inning by pushing a single to centre field. Carling Hare struck out Lucie Petraskova on a good rise ball and got Eliska Poverova to ground out to Chiya Louie at shortstop. But then Lenka Jaklova lashed the first pitch she saw into the left-field corner for a triple, and now the Czechs led 3-1 and GB had to score six runs to best them on runs conceded.
That target looked even more distant after Karlene Headley-Cooper led off the bottom of the fifth for GB with a replica of Lenka Jaklova's triple down the left field line – and yet still GB failed to score. Amy Moore took a called third strike, again at the knees, Laura Thompson hit a soft line drive back to the pitcher and Sarah Craig grounded out to short, with Karlene anchored at third base.
GB breakthrough
In the top of the sixth inning, all three Czech batters tried to slap the ball through the left side of the infield, and the result was two line drives snapped up by Sarah Craig at third base and one by Chiya Louie at short, all in 10 pitches.
And then, in the bottom of the sixth, GB made the breakthrough.
Alicja Wolny started the rally by hitting an 0-2 pitch sharply up the middle. Chiya Louie followed with a hard-hit ground ball that sped under the glove of shortstop Eliska Pojerova, and Sarah Jones drew a four-pitch walk, loading the bases for GB with no one out.
After the game, the next batter, Steph Pearce, said, “I was just determined in that situation that I was going to hit the ball somewhere!”
Steph did more than just hit it – she blasted a long line drive into the gap in left-centre field that cleared the outfield fence on one hop. That brought in two runs and left Sarah Jones on third and Steph on second.
It was also the end of the line for Jitka Horova, and right-hander Vendula Draha came in to pitch.
Both runners had to hold when Kori Waugh bounced out to short for the first out, but Karlene Headley-Cooper punched a single between the shortstop and second base, and GB had the lead for the first time at 4-3 as Sarah Jones scored and Steph Pearce moved to third. And the top of the line-up was coming up to hit.
But with lead-off hitter Amy Moore at bat, a strange play occurred that GB will look back on with regret. With three more runs needed for GB to tie the Czechs on runs conceded (and that would have put GB through), Head Coach Hayley Scott called for Karlene Headley-Cooper to steal second, thinking that the Czechs would concede the base rather than the run.
But the Czechs were well aware that it was runs rather than the result that mattered, and they got Karlene out in a rundown while allowing Steph to score.
Suddenly, GB still needed two runs but had no baserunners, and when Amy Moore popped out to short, GB was in the strange position of still needing to win the game by retiring the Czechs in the top of the seventh, but with no way to improve their runs-conceded situation.
The end
Carling Hare made sure there was no question about the win, setting down the top of the Czech line-up in order in the seventh inning on a grounder to second base and two easy fly balls to left and centre field.
As Karlene Headley-Cooper caught Lucie Petraskova's fly ball in centre to end the game and give GB a very fine win, there was joy and sorrow on the field for GB – and also some confusion.
First, the GB coaches asked if GB could “bat out” the bottom of the seventh inning, but that was never going to happen.
Then they asked about a clause in the tournament regulations that seemed to suggest that there could be a discretionary playoff game between tied teams. But that's an ISF rule that only applies if teams are tied on runs conceded.
However, the format for a 19-team tournament in the ESF Competition Regulations as published on the ESF website says that the teams placed second and third in the quarter-final playoff groups shall play each other in an “extra game” to determine second place in these groups.
The ESF's initial response was that the “extra game” had been removed from the Competition Regulations in 2012 – though they conceded that it is only the 2011 version that is on the ESF website, and there are no updates regarding Competition Regulations on the site.
So the GB coaches asked the ESF Technical Commission to consider the situation, and they did – but the answer, from ESF President Andre van Overbeek and Tournament TC Connie Chwojka was that they sympathised with GB's position, but the tournament had been scheduled based on the 2012 Regulations, the “extra games” are not part of those regulations, and so can not be played.
If GB wants to play in the 2014 World Championships in Holland, their only route will be to ask the ISF for a “wild card” place if a qualifier were to drop out – the route by which GB first played in the modern World Championships in 2006 in Beijing.
Meanwhile, GB will play one more game at this tournament -- a fifth-place playoff at 1.30 pm tomorrow against Austria.
GB pride
“I'm very proud of all you,” Head Coach Hayley Scott told the team after the game. “You did exactly what we came here to do, you have played a fine tournament, and you fought back and won a very tough game this afternoon.
“Of course,” Hayley added, “it might have been cool to have scored some runs a little earlier than the sixth inning!”
The truth is that a GB Team with many new players and without dominant pitching of the kind that Stacie Townsend has provided since 2009 has performed very well here, with several players prominent among the tournament's offensive and defensive leaders. The fact that GB has missed out on a Page Playoff and World Championship place is much less than this team deserves.
And that's not even to mention the fact that GB was handed a much harder pool than their seeding deserved because the ESF chooses to distort their own seedings by drawing names out of hats at their annual Congress to assign teams to pools.
None of the other top four seeds (GB was seeded third based on European Championship results in 2011) had a team that could remotely keep them from winning their group and getting an easier second round draw; GB had two tough teams, Russia and Germany, to contend with and when GB lost to Russia 8-7, it meant GB would be a second-placed team in the playoff round, and that meant they had to face both Italy and the Czechs.
And of course the final piece of bad luck was the Czechs unexpectedly beating Italy on Wednesday night, something that has not happened for many years. Not even the Czechs expected to win that game. Head Coach Andre Prins said, "I thought it would all come down to the game against GB." But faced with a huge crowd of partisan Czech fans on Wednesday night and a wall of noise coming from drums, horns, vuvuzuelas and chanting fans, the Italian folded, and committed errors that gave the Czechs the game. On Thursday, the crowd was smaller but just as partisan and the noise was almost as loud -- and GB stood firm.
There will be lots of turning points to look back on from this tournament – but above all, the players can look back on it with pride. Coupled with the excellent performance of the GB Under-19 Women at their first Junior World Championships in Canada earlier this month, the future looks bright for the GB Women's Team programme.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the British Softball Federation.