by Bob Fromer
Mlade Buky, Czech Republic -- In the first of three games that H2O and the Chromies will probably play against each other on the road to the European Slowpitch Super Cup title in the Czech Republic, H2O drew first blood on Thursday morning with a 19-10 win in the first game of the Championship round-robin.
But unless one of the two British entries slips up against another team, only their third encounter, which is likely to come in the Grand Final, will really matter.
Interestingly, after the two teams faced each other, they both struggled in their next playoff games on Thursday afternoon – though both came through to win.
With the start of the playoff round-robin on Thursday morning, the competition has suddenly gotten a lot more intense, with all but one game so far in the Championship round-robin going the full seven innings.
H2O v Chromies
Chromies came into the game with H2O minus Jarrod Pretorius, who is struggling with a leg injury, and with Lee Rowe showing only restricted mobility that eventually forced him to play first base later in the day (the Chromies have no other male players available).
H2O had no such problems, and swarmed all over the Chromies in the first three innings, by the end of which they were 15-1 ahead.
“Come on,” shouted Chromies Manager Doug Clouston at one point, “this is embarrassing!”
The long ball was H2O's principal weapon early on, as Steve Hazard belted a two-run homer to left centre field in the first inning and Jeff Swindell put a three-run shot over the same fence in left centre in the second. Five more runs in the third inning were based around a bloop double by Steve Hazard and a ringing triple by Brian Connolly.
After that, the teams more or less traded runs throughout the game, but at the end of seven innings, H2O still had a healthy nine-run margin, with the final score 19-10.
Brad Gilmour pitched the complete game for H2O, and restricted the Chromies to just one run in each of their scoring innings except for the fourth, when the Chromies suddenly looked like the Chromies and belted out six straight hits, good for six runs, including a two-run blast deep to left field by Michael Lee and a three run home run to right centre field by Danny Gunn.
But that only took the score from 15-1 to 15-7, and H2O zoomed further ahead in the top of the fifth inning with four more runs on singles by Kirsty Leach, Steve Hazard, Alexa van Sickle, Jeff Swindell, Jenny Patterson, and a key two-run pinch-hit single by David Baird.
David Lee pitched the full game for Chromies, giving up 22 hits and five walks, and he will know better than anyone that those stats will need to improve when the teams meet again. Part of the problem the Chromies face is having only the one pitcher while H2O, in Roger Grooms, Brad Gilmour and David Baird, have three.
Kirsty Leach and Steve Hazard each had four hits for H2O, while Jeff Swindell and Brian Connolly had three. For the Chromies, Danny Gunn led the offense with two doubles and a home run, while Michael Sulcova had three singles and her sister Marketa had four.
Chromies v Lisicke
After their game against each other, both the Chromies and H2O had one more game to play in the Championship round-robin on Thursday, with a final game for both teams to come on Friday morning.
And both teams struggled in their Thursday afternoon game, though the Chromies struggled more, and had to come from behind to overcome the 2012 European Slowpitch Cup champions Lisicke from Slovenia. The final score was 12-10, but had Lisicke left fielder Tjasa Skabar taken two key catches instead of missing them both, the Slovenians would probably have won.
For H2O, playing Kiely's Kegs from Ireland, it was more a case of their offense taking a while to get going. The score was 1-1 at the end of four innings, but the Irish never put much pressure on the British defense, and H2O eventually sped away for a 9-2 win.
The Chromies-Lisicke game was very different, and was one of the games of the tournament so far.
Chromies scored three runs in the first inning following a lead-off double by Danny Gunn, who had two doubles, a triple and a single in the game, and each time he batted in an inning, the Chromies scored runs.
But Lisicke replied with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first.
Two runs in the top of the third inning for Chromies on doubles by Danny Gunn and Ryan Martin and a single by David Lee stretched the Chromies' lead to 5-2, but a three-run home run in the bottom of the inning by Andraz Skabar, who had three hits, two home runs and eight RBIs in the game, tied the score at 5-5.
Then, in the bottom of the fourth, Lisicke scored five times on six hits, including another home run from Andraz Skabar, and the Chromies were down 10-5 and in trouble.
But they came right back in the top of the fifth with five runs of their own to tie the score. Once again, the rally was started by Danny Gunn, who led off the inning with a triple to left field, and there were doubles from Mo Fleet, Misha Sulcova and Michael Lee. Most important of all, however, was a towering two-run home run to left field from a very frustrated David Lee, who had all kinds of issues with the plate umpire's strike zone, but took his anger out on the ball instead.
With the pressure now on, the Lisicke offense dried up as David Lee began to throw more first-pitch strikes, and in the top of the sixth inning the Chromies scored the two runs that won the game. Again, it was Danny Gunn who started things with a lead-off single. Jenny Ball then singled behind him, Tjasa Skabar dropped an easy catch in left field off the bat of Ryan Martin to load the bases, and sacrifice flies by Mo Flett and David Lee delivered the runs.
The score was still 12-10 when Lisicke came up in the bottom of the seventh inning and they put the tying runs on base with singles by John Leonard and Miran Brinovec. But Sabina Golicnik grounded into a force play to end the game.
“Well, it was interesting,” the Chromies' Natalie Bailey said afterwards. “Up to now it's been a bit boring!”
H2O v Kiely's Kegs
The Irish team Kiely's Kegs had given Chromies their most competitive game of the first round, though the 19-4 final score wouldn't suggest that, and now they proceeded to give a buoyant H2O team food for thought as well.
H2O scored one run in the first inning on yet another Steve Hazard home run (Steve would get another later in the game, his 10th of the competition). But the defenses were generally on top, along with pitchers Roger Grooms for H2O and Peter Young for the Irish, and an Irish run in the bottom of the third inning, driven in on a single by first base player Kim Jones, tied the score at 1-1.
Unlike the Chromies-Lisicke game, however, where there was some real desperation on the Chromies' side of the field, H2O had more the air of someone waiting for a bus, convinced it would eventually come.
In this case, it came in the top of the fifth inning, when Peter Young committed the cardinal sin of walking the first two batters in the inning, Christine Davies and Roger Grooms. That had trouble written all over it, and sure enough, a single by Kirsty Leach brought in one run and a three-run homer by Brian Connolly did the rest.
Now it was 5-1 to H2O, and 6-1 after David Baird blasted a solo home run in the top of the sixth.
Kiely's Kegs got that run back in the bottom of the sixth, but three more runs in the top of the seventh on a double by Roger Grooms, a single by Kirsty Leach and another blast by Steve Hazard stretched the lead to 9-2. And that's how the game ended.
Tomorrow
On Friday morning, H2O will play the dangerous Askoe Linz Bandits from Austria, who have been the most successful team in the tournament so far apart from the two British entries, while the Chromies will play the German team UCE Travellers.
Assuming both British teams win – which may not be such a given as it seemed to be earlier in the week – then the Chromies and H2O will square off again in the 1v2 Page Playoff game at 6.00 pm on Friday evening.
Playoff results
Scores from the Championship playoff round that started Thursday morning are:
H2O 19, Chromies 10
Askoe Linz Bandits 16, UCE Travellers 15
Chromies 12, Lisicke 10
H2O 9, Kiely's Kegs 2
Lisicke 25, Askoe Linz Bandits 10
UCE Travellers 24, Kiely's Kegs 9
For Lisicke, who barely made the Championship round after winning the competition in 2012, the game against Askoe Linz Bandits was a must-win if the Slovenians were to make the Page Playoffs, and the 25-10 margin was impressive, considering that the Austrians had only lost one game (to Chromies) to that point.
At this point, Chromies and H2O will definitely make the Page Playoffs, and Kiely's Kegs probably won't. Askoe Linz Bandits, UCE Travellers and Lisicke will be fighting for the other two spots on Friday, but only two of them will make it.
Tournament Notes
European slowpitch is becoming a community of its own, and this can be seen in the fact that a number of teams are featuring players from different countries. GB Slowpitch Team players Lucy Binding and Kim Hendry are playing for the German team UCE Travellers, and Lisicke from Slovenia have John Leonard from Ireland and GB Slowpitch Team player Adam Haywood on the field. There are probably other examples.
All of this adds to the community feel of the tournament, which, being slowpitch, is generally friendly and fun. At the main venue in Mlade Buky, the use of music and play-by-play commentary adds to the atmosphere.
This is the largest-ever ESF slowpitch competition, and ESF Slowpitch Commissioner John Austin reckons that the move to make the tournament every two years instead of annual, and to allow more than one team per country, has resulted in an event that should become even more popular in years to come.