By Mary Murray

ENSCHEDE, Netherlands: 19 July -- The Great Britain Under-15 Women’s Team suffered a 17-2 setback in three innings to France yesterday in their first game at the Under-15 Women’s European Championship.  With such a young team, this was the first international game experience at a European Championship for most of these athletes.

Due to an administrative error by the British Softball Federation, the Great Britain Under-15 Women’s Team is not able to officially compete in the European Championships and will automatically finish ninth.  As such, each game played will officially be scored as a forfeit loss by a score of 7-0. In our coverage of the tournament, we will be highlighting the performances of the athletes in Enschede and will be reporting the games as they are played out on the field.

You can see the Federation’s statement regarding this situation here.  

GB started out the game in the top of the first inning with an immediate threat to score.  Sydney Teague was hit by a pitch with two outs to reach base and Hope Schultz was walked to bring runners to first and second.  Sydney pulled off a delayed steal on the French, and Hope trailed to follow and bring runners to second and third.  However, a strikeout ended the inning and brought the French bats to the plate.

France wasted no time getting on the board and jumping out to the lead.  First-game nerves were on display for the Gb Team as walks, errors, and hits from France put the opposition out to an 11-0 lead heading into the second inning.

Amy Morris led off the inning with a line drive single to right field, which was GB’s first hit of the tournament.  Cerys Jones hit a hard ground ball to the pitcher to advance Amy to second base, bringing a runner into scoring position with one out.  An illegal pitch allowed Amy to advance to third before Isla Dodson-Richi hit an RBI groundout to first base to put GB on the board.  Anna Kingston walked later in the inning with two outs, and Jenna Thompson got back up to the plate and smashed a two-out triple over the center fielder’s head to drive Anna in to score.

France added more runs in the top of the second inning, and after appearances from Cerys Jones and Jenna Thompson in the circle, GB got out of the inning.  After two ground outs to bring GB within its last out of the game, Amber Frost drew a walk and Amy Morris reached on an error, which brought runners to second and third.  A groundout ended the game and resulted in the loss for GB by a score of 17-2.

The squad will look to build on the foundation they have laid throughout four days of training camp and a day of competition moving into Tuesday’s games.  GB will take on Croatia at 9.00 am (8.00 am BST), followed by a match-up with Germany at 1:45 pm (12:45 pm BST).

Scores and standings

Scores on Monday at the European Under-15 Women’s Championship, where the teams will spend most of the week playing a full round-robin, were:

Lithuania 13, Croatia 12
Ukraine 4, Germany 3
Italy 1, France 0
Netherlands 27, Croatia 0 (4 inns)
Czech Republic 11, Germany 1 (4 inns)
France 17, GB 2 (3 inns) (7-0 forfeit)
Netherlands 5, Ukraine 3

Round-robin standings at the end of Day 1, excluding GB, are:

Netherlands (2-0)
Czech Republic (1-0)
Lithuania (1-0)
Italy (1-0)
Ukraine (1-1)
France (1-1)
Croatia (0-2)
Germany (0-2)