Saturday 12 August – Two last Championship round-robin games in the European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup were played on Saturday morning in Sofia. H20, already assured of a place in the gold medal game on Saturday afternoon, won easily, but the 
Travelling Dodgers’ loss means they will be playing for bronze.
The two final games in Group E – H20 against Waynes Pardubice and the Travelling Dodgers against the Dutch team Textown Tigers -- had been postponed from Thursday after heavy rain on the day.
One game was meaningless: H20 were already confirmed as group winners and Waynes Pardubice already knew they would be playing for fifth place later on Saturday, regardless of how this game turned out.
However, the other game, with both the Dodgers and Textown Tigers tied with 3-1 records in Group E, would determine who joined H20 in the final.
In the event, H20 had no problems keeping their unbeaten record intact in a 27-8 win over the Czechs.
But the Travelling Dodgers fell behind early to their Dutch opponents, closed the gap to two runs at the end of the fifth inning, then surrendered seven runs to Textown in the top of the sixth, and that was too much to make up as the British team went down by 17-11.
So Waynes Pardubice will play the Asko Linz Bandits and Witches for fifth place at 1.00 pm Bulgarian time, the Travelling Dodgers will play the UCE Travellers for the bronze medal at 3.00 pm, and H20 will face Textown Tigers for the gold medal at 5.00 pm.
Before that, there will be games to determine seventh, ninth and eleventh place among the teams that failed to make the cut after the tournament’s initial round-robin.
Textown Tigers 17, Travelling Dodgers 11
Tyler McGoveran and Nick Wingate each homered twice in this game, but it wasn’t enough to make up for a slow start by the Travelling Dodgers that saw them fall 8-0 behind before they put a run on the board.
Three runs for the Dodgers in the bottom of the third inning after two were out, two of them on Nick Wingate’s home run, started the comeback. Five more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, four of them on Tyler McGoveran and Nick Wingate home runs, cut the Dutch lead to 10-8 and gave the Dodgers some hope.
But that was quickly dashed in the top of the sixth inning when Textown scored seven runs on six hits and – crucially – four Dodger errors, extending their lead to 17-8.
With the sixth inning due to be the last in this time-limited game, the gap was too big to close. The Dodgers did score three in the bottom of the sixth on Sam Steele’s double, a walk to Sherry Kenyon and Tyler McGoveran’s three-run homer, and this was followed by a single from Katie Jessop and then a Dutch error on Nick Wingate’s fly ball. But the last two outs quickly followed and the Travelling Dodgers were left to rue what might have been.
The final score was 17-11 to Textown, a six-run difference, and the Dodgers gave up six unearned runs in the game while the Tigers gave up none.
H20 27, Waynes Pardubice 8
After falling behind briefly at the start of this four-inning mercy rule game, H20 scored 13 runs in the bottom of the second inning to take control and eight more in the bottom of the fourth inning to finish things off.
Robbie Studholme and Mike MacDowell both went 4-for-5, and H20 banged out 29 hits (an average of over seven an inning!) to just 11 for the Czechs. Joe Grantham and Roger Grooms shared the pitching with two innings each, and there were home runs for Robbie Studholme, Mike MacDowell and two for Joe Grantham.
The game had no meaning, with H20’s position as Group E winners and Waynes Pardubice’s fifth place finish already confirmed, so both teams will have been pleased with the early finish, with more important games to come on Saturday afternoon.
Standings
After these last two games in the Championship round-robin were played, the final standings in Group E were:
H20 (5-0)
Textown Tigers-Eastpro (4-1)
Travelling Dodgers (3-2)
UCE Travellers (2-3)
Waynes Pardubice (1-4)
Asko Linz Bandits & Witches (0-5)