By Bob Fromer
Trnava, Slovakia: 26 July – An unbelievable extra-inning 4-3 comeback win over Ireland this afternoon by the GB Under-22s at the 
European Under-22 Women’s Championship, one of the best comebacks in GB Softball history, leaves the team still in contention for a medal at this tournament.
GB had to come back from the dead twice to win this game – once trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, and then trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth – and both times the spirit and focus of the team carried them through and allowed them to finally lay the curse of extra innings to rest.
It will be a bitter loss for the Irish, for it dents their hopes of a medal here, and means they have now lost to GB four times over the course of the European Under-19 and Under-22 Championships – and five times if you count their loss to the GB Under-19s at the London Cup, which seems a lifetime ago.
Earlier today, GB completed their games in the first Championship round-robin pool with a routine and expected 12-4 win over Belgium (see report below) -- but the game still had to be won to ensure that GB moved on to the six-team X Pool.
The game against Ireland was the first of three games in the X Pool, with the Netherlands to come at 9.30 am tomorrow (Friday) and Russia at 4.15 pm, both on the main field – so both games will be webstreamed on www.baseballsoftball.tv an hour earlier than those times in the UK.
GB has come into the X Pool carrying yesterday’s tough losses to Italy and the Czech Republic with them, so If the team is to have any chance of getting to the final on Saturday, they will need to win both games on Friday and hope other results help them. But one win on Friday could – depending again on other results – get them to the bronze medal game.
After what happened this afternoon against Ireland, the GB Under-22s will believe anything is possible.
GB v Ireland
This game, unlike the previous encounters between GB and Ireland over the past two weeks, was a full-blown pitcher’s duel with an unlikely and explosive ending.
The Irish started right-hander Kelly Nelson, who had pitched against GB in three previous games with a fair amount of success, and GB countered with Hannah Edwards, whom the Irish had seen just once.
Kelly Nelson pitched a brilliant game, throwing a very high percentage of first-pitch strikes, staying ahead of almost every GB hitter, and living on the outside corner, where the umpire was happy to give her strikes. Through the first six innings, GB had only one hit against Nelson – a single to centre field by Katie Burge in bottom of the third inning – and just two other baserunners via a walk and an error. There was nothing even close to a scoring threat.
Meanwhile, the Irish ambushed Hannah Edwards in the top of the first inning, and GB was extremely lucky to escape only 1-0 down.
Irish lead-off hitter Maura Keary opened the game with a booming double to left field, Lauren Packer scored her with a single up the middle and Claire Blount drove a single to right field, sending Packer to third, with Blount taking second on the throw to third. The GB Under-22s were in big trouble.
But somehow, they got themselves out of it. Hannah Edwards got Irish clean-up hitter Teresa Griswold to pop up to shortstop for the first out. Eimear Cunningham then put down a bunt and reached first base to load the bases, but Lauren Packer had to hold on third.
Then Alexandra Monteleone hit a fly ball to Alana Snow in medium centre field. Earlier, when Lauren Packer had singled to centre to score Maura Leary, Alana’s throw to the plate had sailed far over catcher Olivia Lee’s head. This time, however, Alana fired a strike to home, and Lauren Packer was caught in a rundown between third and home and tagged out to complete the double play – and, as it turned out, to save GB’s bacon.
Stasis
The next six innings were dominated by the pitchers. Kelly Nelson just kept throwing strikes and hitting spots, and Hannah Edwards was also mowing down the Irish hitters. After giving up four hits in the first inning, Hannah gave up only two over the next six frames, along with one walk.
The GB defense, fulfilling a goal they had set themselves after last night’s loss to the Czech Republic, committed only one error, and it wasn’t costly. The only thing that could be described as an Irish threat came in the top of the fourth inning, when sisters Alexandra and Hannah Monteleone drove back-to-back singles to left field with two out. But Lily Wilmot then flied harmlessly to Alana Snow in centre field.
And so we come to the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Irish still leading 1-0 and GB’s tournament on the line. And that’s when the game exploded.
Comeback #1
GB had the middle of their order coming to the plate in the bottom of the seventh, with Hannah Edwards leading off. Hannah had struck out in both previous at-bats, fishing for pitches off the outside corner, but this time a long battle ensued, with Hannah fouling off pitch after pitch before finally winning the battle and driving a double to right centre field.
Megan Parno executed a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Hannah to third as GB played to score the tying run.
And it didn’t take long: Lauren King drove a huge fly ball to left centre field that looked like it might leave the ballpark. It didn’t, but it scored the tying run and put Lauren as the winning run on second base. However, Kelly Nelson had enough left to strike out Andrea Johnson and Amie Hutchison and take the game into the territory that GB has learned to dread over the past two weeks: extra innings.
Nightmare
Ireland had the first go at trying to cash their tie-break runner in the top of the eighth inning, and for a few minutes, it looked like GB might get out of the inning unscathed.
Maura Keary was the runner and the first batter, Lauren Packer, swung away instead of going for the sacrifice bunt, and fouled out to first base player Megan Parno.
Claire Blount then drove a shot up the middle, but Hannah Edwards got a glove on it and the ball deflected to Katie Burge at second base, who threw out Blount as Maura Keary moved to third.
Just as they had been last night against the Czech Republic, GB was one out away from getting out of a tie-break inning without allowing a run. And just like last night, anticipation turned to despair.
The next Irish batter was the catcher, Teresa Griswold, and she launched a towering drive to left field on Hannah Edwards’s first pitch. The ball sailed over the fence for a stunning two-run home run as the Irish dugout went crazy. Ireland were up 3-1, and though Eimear Cunningham ended the inning by grounding out to short, surely there was no way back for GB.
Comeback #2
But as one of the players said afterward, no one in the GB dugout at that point was looking like they thought the game was over, and that was probably the most important first step to what followed.
Amie Hutchison was the tie-break runner as the inning began, and catcher Olivia Lee was the first hitter, and Olivia promptly lined a single to right centre field to score Amie and cut the Irish lead to 3-2.
But Olivia stayed at first as pinch-hitter Kyra Watson struck out, and though she moved to second on a wild pitch with Katie Burge at the plate, Katie then flied out to left field.
The last hope for GB was shortstop Diana Nisbett, who had had to leave the Belgian game in the morning after taking a blow to the face from a Belgian baserunner; it was a close-run thing that Diana had even made the starting line-up against Ireland. Now she was quickly down two strikes to Kelly Nelson. But after fouling off a couple of pitches, Diana drove a low pitch on a line to centre field, driving in Olivia Lee with the tying run, and now it was the turn of the GB bench to go nuts.
And now came an ending to the game that Kelly Nelson didn’t deserve. The next GB batter was Hannah Edwards, and Nelson got two quick strikes but then pitched carefully to Hannah for obvious reasons, and eventually walked her.
Now it was Megan Parno, admirably patient, taking the count to 3-1, swinging and fouling a high pitch for strike two, and then drawing another walk to load the bases.
Kelly Nelson wasn’t missing by much, and she hadn’t suddenly got wild. But she had tightened up, and was now getting little help from the umpire, who was no longer giving her the strike off the outside corner.
Next was Lauren King, one of the seventh inning heroes, and again the count went to 3-and-2. And then Lauren had the nerve to lay off an outside pitch, and gave a leap of jubilation as she headed for first base on Kelly Nelson’s third straight walk while Diana Nisbett, fittingly, trotted home with the winning run.
“I thought it was outside,” Lauren King said afterwards, “it looked like a definite take”. But it’s not easy to maintain that kind of patience under pressure, and three straight GB hitters – Hannah Edwards, Megan Parno and Lauren King – had done it, and gave the GB Under-22s an incredible win.
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GB v Belgium
The GB Under-22s made sure of progressing into the X Pool this morning with a routine and efficient 12-4 win over Belgium that ended after six innings on the mercy rule.
GB scored in every inning except the fifth, Kyra Watson contained Belgium for five innings with Amie Hutchison closing the game in the sixth, and the GB defense played errorless softball.
The game was played on Field 3 at the second complex in Trnava, which is an all-grass field, and this meant that bunts were an even more effective weapon that usual, since the grass deadens the ball. Both teams took advantage of this: the Belgians had three bunt singles and GB had two.
But for GB, it was more about hitting the ball hard against three different Belgian pitchers. The Under-22s pounded out 15 hits in six innings, six of them for extra bases. The Belgian pitchers also contributed two walks and hit two GB batters with pitches.
The only negative aspect to the game was that GB shortstop Diana Nisbett had to leave the field in the third inning after she received a blow to the face in the process of tagging out Belgian centre fielder Caroline Goyuperts trying to steal second base. At first a broken nose was feared, but that wasn’t the case, and after undergoing concussion protocol, Diana was able to play against Ireland in the afternoon – and play a major part in the outcome.
The GB offense that scored runs in bunches throughout the Belgian game was led by second base player Katie Burge, who went 4-for-5, including a double to lead off the game, and drove in four runs.
Diana Nisbett had a single, a double and was hit by a pitch before she had to leave the game, Sydney Robson went 3-for-4 including a double, Andrea Johnson had a single and a double, Lauren King had a single and a triple and Hannah Edwards chipped in with an RBI double. Belgian outfielders spent a lot of the game with their backs to the plate.
Belgium managed seven hits off Kyra Watson in five innings and one off Amie Hutchison in the sixth, with three of the hits coming from third base player Celine Janssens, who was 3-for-3 with a triple and drove in two of Belgium’s four runs. Her third hit of the game, in the fifth inning, made sure that the game wouldn’t end on the mercy rule after five innings and forced one more inning to be played.
While the result of this game was never in doubt after GB scored six runs in the first two innings, ir helped the team get some momentum back after Wednesday’s night’s extra-inning loss to the Czechs and set them up nicely for the tougher games to come.
Scores
Here are the final scores and standing from the first Championship round-robin, plus today's scores from the X Pool involving the top six teams:
Championship Playoffs
Pool E Scores
Italy 4, GB 1
Czech Republic 5, Belgium 1
Italy 7, Belgium 0
Czech Republic 3, GB 2 (8 innings)
Italy 9, Czech Republic 1
GB 12, Belgium 4
Pool E Standings
Italy (3-0)
Czech Republic (2-1)
GB (1-2)
Belgium (0-3)
Pool F Scores
Russia 8, Poland 1
Netherlands 9, Ireland 0
Ireland 8, Poland 1
Netherlands 11, Russia 4
Ireland 6, Russia 3
Netherlands 11, Poland 0
Pool F Standings
Netherlands (3-0)
Ireland (2-1)
Russia (1-2)
Poland (0-3)
X Pool Scores
GB 4, Ireland 3 (8 innings)
Netherlands 4, Italy 1
Russia 4, Czech Republic 1
Current X Pool Standings
Netherlands (3-0)
Italy (2-1)
Czech Republic (1-2)
Great Britain (1-2)
Ireland (1-2)
Russia (1-2)