Wednesday 9 August – Play got underway on Wednesday afternoon in the six-team Championship playoff round-robin that will decide which teams will play in the medal games on Saturday at the European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup, and one of the first games 
saw the two British teams go head-to-head.
The Travelling Dodgers and H20, both winners of their first-round playoff groups, met at the tournament’s main field at Oktomvri at 5.30 pm Bulgarian time, and H20 took the honours in the Battle of the Brits by a score of 36-21.
The result means that if the two British teams want to meet again in Saturday’s gold medal game, the Travelling Dodgers may need to win all their remaining games in this playoff round, which will play out over Thursday and Friday.
H20 36, Travelling Dodgers 21
This was a titanic struggle between the two British teams that have so far been the best teams in the European Slowpitch Cup. The hits and runs kept flowing in virtually every inning, and though the Travelling Dodgers brought their usual power game, with five home runs, six doubles and a triple, it was H20 who scored more runs in every inning except the first, which ended with the Dodgers 3-2 ahead.
H20 had 34 hits to 29 for the Dodgers, but the difference in the game may have been more about pitching and defense.
H20 pitcher Roger Grooms held the powerful Dodgers attack to just eight runs over the first four innings, and just one inside-the-park home run, by Areej Elmaazi. Crucially, Roger didn’t issue a single walk over the course of the game, whereas the usually accurate Dodgers' pitcher Matthew Burnett walked 10, giving H20 10 more baserunners on top of their 34 hits.
The Dodgers’ defense also committed six errors, leading to five unearned runs, while H20 had three errors that cost them only one unearned run.
These could be some of the reasons that H20 wound up with a winning margin of 15 runs in what was, offensively, a pretty even game.
H20 “only” had four home runs, but Mike MacDowell had three of them, winning his personal duel with Tyler Goveran of the Dodgers, who managed only one – though Tyler still leads the tournament with 15 round-trippers while Mike has 10. Both players had six RBIs.
Roger Grooms, who didn’t play in H20’s final game in the first round-robin group this morning, went 5-for-5 in this game, while Josh Smith, Mike MacDowell, Chelsie Robison and Matt Tomlin had four hits each. Cheyenne Vogel had three hits but parlayed them into seven RBIs.
For the Dodgers, Tyler McGoveran and Areej Elmaazi had five hits each and Sam Steele contributed four.
Early lead
While Roger Grooms was holding the Travelling Dodgers to just eight runs in the first four innings, including the only goose egg of the game in the bottom of the fourth, H20 were putting up 20 runs.
After that, the teams slugged it out on a pretty even basis, with H20 scoring 16 runs over the last three innings to 13 for the Dodgers, who found their power bats and cranked out four home runs in those last three frames. But the damage had been done early, and in the end this was a convincing victory on the part of the defending British National Champions over the team that won that honour in 2021.
Other games
Two other games were played this afternoon in the Championship round-robin, Group E.
While a 19-6 win by Waynes Pardubice over the Asko Linz Bandits & Witches from Austria was not a surprise, there were eyebrows raised by the 14-4 win by the Dutch team Textown Tigers over the UCE Travellers. Holding the UCE Travellers to four runs and just five hits over seven innings is no mean feat, and both the Dodgers and H20 will need to be wary when they play both of these teams over the next two days.
H20 may have an initial advantage in this Championship playoff round, but there are bound to be twists and turns before Saturday.
Scores and standings
While play got underway on Wednesday afternoon in the six-team Championship playoff round-robin, Group E, the seven teams that failed to make the cut after the initial round-robins started their own playoff group, Group F, that will eventually lead to seventh, ninth and eleventh-place games on Saturday.
Scores in Group E on Wednesday afternoon were:
Waynes Pardubice 19, Asko Linz Witches & Bandits 6
Textown Tigers-Eastpro 14, UCE Travellers 4
H20 36, Travelling Dodgers 21
Standings in Group E after that first round of games are:
H20 (1-0)
Textown Tigers-Eastpro (1-0)
Waynes Pardubice (1-0)
Travelling Dodgers (0-1)
UCE Travellers (0-1)
Asko Linz Bandits & Witches (0-1)
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 and 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.