The Great Britain U22 Women’s Fastpitch Softball team defeated Czechia 5-4 on Saturday, 10 August to claim the Bronze Medal at the U22 European Softball Championships 2024 in Kutno, Poland.
Great Britain’s path to the Bronze Medal Game was a winding one. With opening-round losses to Italy and France to start the tournament, GB found themselves in a must-win situation early, but win they did, defeating Germany and Austria in back-to-back run-rule victories to qualify for the Super Round. After dropping the Super Round opener to The Netherlands, the U22s would sweep their Friday schedule, with run-rule wins against Israel and Czechia, setting up a rematch with the Czechs for the bronze.
Czechia wasted no time taking the lead, scoring their first run against Great Britain this tournament on Magdalena Kavanova’s leadoff home run. British starter Mackenzie Langan was able to recover quickly, locking in to strike out the side. In the home half of the first, a one-out single by Jessica Chan and walks to Kaite Burge and Morgan Salmon loaded the bases, and Jenna Thompson tied the game on a long sacrifice fly to centre to score Chan. A ground out ended the inning, with the score knotted at 1.
Langan returned to the circle for the second, inducing a groundout and racking up two more strikeouts to retire the side in order. Kaitlyn Parisi singled to start the GB second and was replaced on a Cara Edwards Fielder’s Choice. Edwards advanced to second on Amy Hartle’s groundout and raced around to score on Tia Warsop’s single, giving GB a 2-1 advantage after two.
In the third, Langan quickly retired the first two batters, including her sixth strikeout of the day, before Kavanova doubled to left centre for her – and Czechia’s – second hit of the day. On a 2-2 pitch, Langan got a grounder to end the inning and strand the runner. With one out in the bottom of the inning, Salmon was hit by a pitch, and after the second out, so was Mia Krueger, but they were stranded aboard by the Czech side.
A throwing error by Burge allowed Kristýna El Ghannam to reach base, and a one-out walk to Tat’ana Toušková put runners at first and second for Czechia in the fourth. However, Langan got Karolina Noskova to ground into a fielder’s choice, with El Ghannam retired at third, and Monika Deverova popped out to Burge to end the inning with GB’s 2-1 lead intact.
Amálie Chaloupková took over in the circle for Czechia and walked Edwards to start the GB fourth. She would advance on a wild pitch before Amy Hartle received a free pass as well. A sacrifice bunt toward first from Warsop advanced both runners into scoring position, but Chaloupková got the final two outs of the inning to end the threat.
In the fifth, a one-out double for Michaela Curillova, and an intentional walk issued to Kavanova brought up Aneta Molentova, who bunted the runners into scoring position. With two down, Langan faced El Ghannam and struck her out on four pitches to strand the runners aboard.
Great Britain would break through against Chaloupková in the home half of the fifth. Thompson was hit by a pitch with one out, and Mia Krueger followed up with a single. Parisi ripped a double to right centre to score them both and trotted home on Edwards’ RBI single on the infield. When the dust settled, a three-run fifth game Great Britain a four-run lead.
Czechia would not go down without a fight. A home run to lead off the sixth for Blazkova brought the Czechs back within three, but Langan would get through the rest of the inning quickly while working around a further single. GB were retired in order in their half of the sixth, and Czechia kept clawing back in the seventh. A leadoff walk to Curillova brought up Kavanova, who smashed her second home run of the day to cut the lead to 1. Langan retired the next batter, but El Ghannam doubled, Blazkova singled, and Touskova was intentionally walked to load the bases. With one out and three runners on, Langan induced Noskova to pop out to Thompson at second before Deverova lifted a fly ball to right field. Parisi settled under it, and Great Britain had their bronze medal by a score of five to four.
Jessica Chan led the tournament with four home runs and added 10 RBIs to lead the Great Britain offence. Katie Burge’s six steals were first amongst baserunners, with Morgan Salmon’s five tied for second, and Burge tied for the tournament lead in doubles, smashing five. Mackenzie Langan led GB’s pitching corps, with a tournament-leading 30 strikeouts, a pair of wins, and a 1.72 earned run average.
The win means that Great Britain will finish six spots higher in the 2024 edition of the European Championship than in 2022 when they finished ninth.
The Great Britain Women will next be in action at the Senior level when they play in the European Softball Championships 2024 in Utrecht, The Netherlands from 1-7 September 2024. Great Britain will be defending their European Silver Medal from 2022 and last played in competition at the 2023 Softball World Cup Pool A in Ireland.
Follow the Great Britain Women’s Softball Programme on social media @GBWomenSoftball on Facebook, X, Instagram, and Tik Tok, and on the British Softball Federation website, britishsoftball.org.
