By Mary Murray
ENSCHEDE, Netherlands – The Great Britain Under-15 Women’s team earned their first win of the European Under-15 Women’s Championship against Croatia on Tuesday by a score of 9-3. Later in the day, GB lost their game against Germany by a score of 23-3.
Against Croatia, GB was led by a stellar performance in the circle by Jenna Thompson as well as a strong team effort behind her both on defense and offense.
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 Under-15 Women’s European Championship 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 are highlighting the performances of the athletes in Enschede and reporting the games as they are played on the field.
You can see the Federation’s statement regarding this situation here.
Great Britain 9, Croatia 3
GB jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning after Jenna Thompson retired the first three Croatian batters via strikeout.
In the bottom of the inning, Jenna drew a walk and stole second base on the next pitch. Two pitches later, Jenna then stole third on a delayed steal. Emma Biles walked to bring runners to the corners as Sydney Teague stepped to the plate. Sydney hit into a groundout to shortstop which allowed Jenna to score and Emma to advance to second base.
The next batter, Hope Schultz, drilled a double to right center field to bring Emma home. Amy Morris was out on an infield ground ball but was still able to move Hope to third. Cerys Jones was hit by a pitch to bring runners again to first and third base, and GB was threatening to score yet again. However, a strikeout ended the British rally.
Jenna Thompson added two more strikeouts in the top of the second inning after Isla Dodson-Richi made the first out on a ground ball to second base.
GB came back up to bat in the bottom of the second inning and Amber Frost reached on a walk, bringing Anna Kingston to the plate. With a 2-2 count, Anna hit a single to left field to turn the line-up over. On the same play, Anna was tagged out attempting to advance to second base, but Amber was able to advance to third. Jenna Thompson then hit a double to center field to bring Amber in to score. Jenna advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored shortly after on a delayed steal of home. A strikeout and a fly out to shortstop ended the inning with GB holding a 4-0 advantage.
Croatia threatened right away in the top of the third inning as their lead-off batter, Paula Juras, reached on a walk. She then stole second base, and a walk was issued to Lucja Svec. A wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position and another walk loaded the bases to give the Croatians an opportunity to get on the board. A bases-loaded walk brought home one run, but Sydney Teague ended the inning with a great running catch from shortstop behind the bag at third base.
Hope Schultz led things off for GB in the bottom of the third inning with a hard line drive single to centre field. With one out, Cerys Jones reached on an infield single to second base and Hope advanced to third to put runners on the corners. On the first pitch of the next at-bat, Isla Dodson-Richi hit a single to score Hope and move Cerys to second base and Amber Frost drew a walk to load the bases. Jenna Thompson stepped up to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded, and drilled a ball towards centre field, but the catch was made to end the inning.
GB now held a 5-1 lead heading into the top of the fourth inning.
The first Croatian hitter in the inning reached on an infield single up the middle that was stopped by Isla Dodson-Richi at second base. Jenna Thompson responded by adding a strikeout for the first out of the inning. On a wild pitch, the runner at first took off to second base, and a walk put runners at first and second. The runners advanced on a passed ball during the next at-bat, and a dropped third strike allowed the batter to reach first while the runner on third scored. The back runner trailed and took second base during the same play, leaving runners at second and third for Croatia. A passed ball allowed another run to score, cutting GB’s lead to 5-3 and another walk put runners on the corners. But Jenna Thompson came back with two consecutive strikeouts to choke off the threat.
Sydney Teague drew a one-out walk to start the offense for GB in the bottom of the fourth inning. On a wild pitch, Sydney took second; the next pitch was a repeat and allowed Sydney to advance to third. Hope Schultz drew a walk and on a third straight wild pitch, Sydney scored. Amy Morris hit a single up the middle, moving Hope to third base and Cerys Jones then hit an RBI groundout to the pitcher to bring Hope in to score while Amy moved in to third base. Isla Dodson-Richi then hit a single past the shortstop to left field to score Amy and advanced to second base on an errant throw. GB had extended their lead to 8-3.
A lead-off walk and a single put the first two Croatian runners on base in the top of the fifth inning and a missed bunt attempt allowed the runners to advance to second and third. But Amy Morris made a fine catch on a line drive to hold the runners and Jenna Thompson struck out the next two batters to end the threat and bring GB back up to bat.
Jenna immediately sparked the offense for GB with a one-out home run to right field to put the team up 9-3. Sydney Teague hit a one-out double to left field to keep up the momentum, but that was the last at-bat as time ran out. GB had secured their first win of the tournament.
Asked about the growth of the team, Head Coach Jo Malisani said, “It’s been exciting to see the development and growth of our athletes from the start of training camp to now. We’ve focused on fundamentals and small task-oriented goals, and to see those goals met and chained together for a win against Croatia was great to see.
“We’re super proud of these athletes and their growth and development over the last week,” added Jo. “They’ve really come together to support one another and become a team.”
Germany 23, Great Britain 3
In GB’s second game on Tuesday, Germany jumped out to a quick lead after each of the first two batters was hit by a pitch. The third hitter in the German line-up hit a double to the right center field gap to score Germany’s first two runs, and then errors, wild pitches and passed balls allowed Germany to go up 7-0 by the time the top of the first inning ended.
Jenna Thompson drew a lead-off walk to start the bottom of the first for GB, then stole second base two pitches later and advanced to third on an errant throw. Jenna then scored on a delayed steal to put GB on the board. Emma Biles followed with a walk and advanced to second on a passed ball. Sydney Teague was hit by a pitch, and Hope Schultz hit a deep ball to centre field that turned into a single to load the bases.
Amy Morris walked, which allowed Emma Biles to score and Cerys Jones was hit by a pitch, bringing in Sydney Teague to give GB their third run.
However, two strikeouts and a groundout ended the inning, and Germany took control through the rest of the game and secured the win in four innings.
Scores and standings
Scores on Tuesday at the European Under-15 Women’s Championship were:
Czech Republic 10, Italy 0 (4 inns)
GB 9 Croatia 3 (scored as a 7-0 forfeit to Croatia)
Netherlands 12, Lithuania 0 (4 inns)
Germany 23, Great Britain 3 (4 inns) (scored as a 7-0 forfeit to Germany)
Italy 24, Croatia 0 (3 inns)
Ukraine 14, Lithuania 7 (5 inns)
Czech Republic 20, France 0 (4 inns)
Netherlands 13, Germany 3 (5 inns)
Round-robin standings at the end of Day 2 were:
Netherlands (4-0)
Czech Republic (3-0)
Italy (2-1)
Ukraine (2-1)
Lithuania (1-2)
France (1-2)
Croatia (1-3)
Germany (1-3)
GB (1-2) (0-3 due to forfeits)
Photos by David Morris