Wednesday 9 August – H20 and the Travelling Dodgers played and won their final games in their initial round-robin groups on Wednesday morning at the European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup in Sofia, Bulgaria, and both will advance to the playoffs as group winners.
The Travelling Dodgers, having played three tough games on Tuesday in Group A, had a stroll against the BSC Buffaloes from Bulgaria, winning 30-8.
But it was a different story for H20, who built up a 20-13 lead after five innings against their previously unbeaten rivals in Group B, the UCE Travellers from Germany, then just managed to withstand a late Travellers rally to win by 24-22.
The top three teams from Groups A and B will now move on to a six-team Championship round-robin, Group E, which will begin on Wednesday afternoon and finish on Friday, and will determine the teams to play in the medal games on Saturday.
Teams advancing from Group A are the Travelling Dodgers, Textown Tigers-Eastpro (the Netherlands) and Wayne’s Pardubice (Czechia). Teams advancing from Group B are H20, the UCE Travellers (Germany) and the Asko Linz Bandits & Witches (Austria).
All six teams will have one playoff game on Wednesday afternoon to get the Championship round-robin started, and as luck and the schedule would have it, H20 and the Travelling Dodgers will meet each other at 5.30 pm Bulgarian time (3.30 pm in the UK).
Meanwhile, here are some details on the British teams’ Wednesday morning games.
Travelling Dodgers 30, BSC Buffaloes 8
The Dodgers made light work of an early start on Wednesday morning after three long and tiring games on Tuesday, using their home run power and another strong overall batting performance to roll over the BSC Buffaloes from Bulgaria by 30-8 in a game that ended after five innings on the mercy rule.
The Dodgers belted six home runs to none for the Buffaloes, and Tyler McGoveran inevitably had two of them, producing six RBIs. Pitcher Matthew Burnett also had two home runs and six RBIs, there was a single home run from Nick Wingate and an inside-the-parker from Areej Elmaazi, and Katie Jessop went 5-for-5 including a double and a triple.
By the end of four innings, the Dodgers had a 19-2 lead, and then a long fifth inning followed, in which the Dodgers scored 11 runs in the top of the frame and the Buffaloes tried to claw their way out of the abyss in the bottom of the fifth with six runs of their own. But that wasn’t enough to prevent the mercy rule ending.
The Travelling Dodgers, who had to scramble to get a team to this tournament at all because of WBSC Europe regulations on the number of non-European players allowed on a roster, have looked the strongest team in the competition so far. But there will be a lot of interest in their playoff round meeting on Wednesday afternoon against H20.
H20 24, UCE Travellers 22
This was always going to be a tough game for H20 against the German team we know so well. UCE Travellers are previous winners of the European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup and the Softball World Series tournament in the UK, a number of their best players play in the NSL, and they are a veteran team, led by one of Europe’s best slowpitch players, Wolfgang Walther.
Although a lot of runs were scored, this was not a game dominated by home runs. H20 had two, by Joe Grantham and Barbara Killer, good for five runs, while UCE had three, good for nine runs, including a grand slam by Wolfgang Walther.
But this game was more about singles, doubles and triples. H20 had 31 hits and the Travellers had 26, and 27 hits were produced by women – 13 by H20 and 14 by UCE. Teams that win high level games in co-ed slowpitch are almost always dependent on sustained hitting from their female players, and this game proved the point.
Both teams came out of the blocks quickly in the first inning.
H20 put up five runs in the top of the frame. Josh Smith, Kirtie Leach and Joe Grantham led off the game with consecutive doubles, and later in the inning, Matt Tomlin and Barbara Killer joined the doubles parade.
But the UCE Travellers matched that and raised it with eight runs in the bottom of the first inning, opening up with six consecutive hits, including a home run and a triple, off H20 starting pitcher Joe Grantham.
Joe pitched the first four innings and Mike MacDowell threw the last three to pick up a save in the tournament stats.
The Travellers led 11-7 after two innings, but the third and fourth innings changed the momentum of the game. Joe Grantham kept UCE from scoring in both innings, while H20 managed three runs in the top of the third inning and seven in the bottom of the fourth, including a home run from Barbara Killer and triples by Joe Grantham and Josh Smith.
H20 now had a 17-11 lead, and by the time they had scored three more runs in the top of the fifth and sixth innings, the lead was 23-13.
But no lead is safe in slowpitch against teams of this calibre, and the momentum of the game changed again.
The UCE Travellers put up five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, four of them on Wolfgang Walther’s grand slam, and after H20 scored once in the top of the seventh, the Travellers came up for their last at-bat trailing by only 24-18.
The Travellers made it close, as their women kept a rally going. Tatjana Jung, Clara Zerhusen and Jana Wagschal sandwiched singles around two outs to produce a run, and three more came in on Tom Kupczik’s home run to bring the score to 24-22 and raise the pulse count on the H20 bench.
But Barbara Herzgen flew out to right field to end the game.
Scores and standings
The 13 teams competing in the 2023 European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup were divided into two groups, Group A and Group B, for an initial round-robin that finished at Wednesday lunchtime. Group A had seven teams, while Group B had six teams, with a British entry in each group.
Final round-robin scores from Wednesday morning were:
GROUP A
Travelling Dodgers 30, BCS Buffaloes 8
Waynes Pardubice 24, Berlin Hangarounds 7
Textown Tigers-Eastpro 27, BSC Buffaloes 7
Beveren Reapers 17, Berlin Hangarounds 14
GROUP B
H20 24, UCE Travellers 22
Asko Linz Bandits & Witches 23, Poperinge Frontliners 12
Final standings in the initial round-robin groups were:
GROUP A
Travelling Dodgers (6-0)
Textown Tigers-Eastpro (4-2)
Waynes Pardubice (3-3)
Dodder Dynamoes (3-3)
Beveren Reapers (3-3)
BSC Buffaloes (2-4)
Berlin Hangarounds (0-6)
GROUP B
H20 (5-0)
UCE Travellers (4-1)
Asko Linz Witches and Bandits (3-2)
BatPak (2-3)
Poperinge Frontliners (1-4)
Akademiks Sofia (0-5)
Tomorrow
On Thursday, the Travelling Dodgers and H20 will continue play in the Championship round-robin.
The Dodgers will play games against the Asko Linz Bandits & Witches at 9.00 am local time and Textown Tigers-Eastpro at 5.00 pm
Meanwhile, H20 will face the UCE Travellers again at 11.00 am and Waynes Pardubice at 5.00 pm.