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Collecchio, Italy: 15 August – The London Cubs played their final game on Saturday morning at the Massimo Romeo Youth Cup, and though they lost to Moscovia Marino by a single run, 13-12, after a great comeback, the game showed how far the team has come this week.
After their two victories on Friday and almost another one today, the Cubs will finish in eighth place, the best-ever position achieved by a British team in this competition, and they will come back home with a great sense of momentum.
Confidence
The best thing about this morning’s game against the Russians was that the Cubs had the confidence to fight back from a deep hole and almost pull off a win.
Yesterday, the Cubs had beaten Akademiks from Bulgaria and Joudrs Prague from the Czech Republic by piling up runs in the top of the first inning – 11 against the Bulgarians and seven against the Czechs. This morning, the Cubs came out and scored four against the Russian starter, Angelina Dudorova.
Eliza Esiri and Kristen Kohler both drew walks to open the game, Michelle Shaw and Rose Esiri singled, and there were two Russian errors and a few wild pitches to help the Cubs to a 4-0 lead.
But then the Russians came up and scored 11 runs in the bottom of the first inning against Kristen Kohler on six hits (including a double by Elizaveta Popova), three walks, a bunch of wild pitches, a number of stolen bases and an error. After yesterday, when the Cubs had cut down on this kind of thing and contained the opposition, this felt like a reversion to the blowout losses suffered on Wednesday and Thursday. But it wasn’t.
Fighting back
Instead, the Cubs came storming back in the top of the second inning with four more runs to cut the deficit to 11-8.
Eliza Esiri, as has happened often in this tournament, got things started with an infield single, then stole second and third and scored on a wild pitch. Then Michelle Shaw drove the ball to right centre field and came all the way around to score on an inside-the-park home run.
Rose Esiri walked, also stole second and third, and scored when Annabelle Erlandson struck out on a wild pitch but was able to reach first base. Annabelle stole second, advanced to third on a single by Jasmine Lee Tin and scored on an error.
Having got back into the game, it was important for the Cubs not to allow Moscovia Marino to have another big inning, and things didn’t look good when Anna Klimentieva opened the bottom of the second with a double down the right field line, advanced to third on one wild pitch and scored on another. But despite walking two more batters, Kristen Kohler then pulled things together, striking out Ksenia Kosheleva, throwing out a baserunner at second and getting Anastasia Beliaeva to ground out to second base.
So when the Cubs came up for what would be their last at-bat in the top of the third inning, the deficit was only five runs, at 13-8.
So near and yet so far
Ksenia Kosheleva was now pitching for the Russians, and she helped the Cubs get off to a promising start by walking Kristen Kohler, who stole second and then scored on a pair of wild pitches. Michelle Shaw also walked and stole second and third, and then Kosheleva also walked Rose Esiri. Rose was out at second base on a steal, but Michelle scored to cut the margin to 13-10 with still only one out.
But then there were two outs after Madison Gledhill popped out to shortstop and the game appeared to be over when Annabelle Erlandson struck out. But the pitch got past the Russian catcher and Annabelle reached first base.
The Cubs had had a reprieve and Jasmine Lee Tin underlined it by hitting a double to left field that drove Annabelle around to third. Ella Bruce walked to load the bases, and then a wild pitch moved all three runners up, with Annabelle scoring to make it 13-11.
Tension was mounting, especially in the Russian dugout, and the Russians made some defensive changes in the field.
The Cubs continued to apply pressure. Jessica Woodhams walked to re-load the bases, and when Eliza Esiri reached on a single to third base, Jasmine Lee Tin scored to cut the Russian lead to 13-12 with the bases still loaded and Kristen Kohler coming to the plate with a chance to win her own game.
But Kristen hit a ground ball back to the pitcher, and the Cubs fell just short of what would have been a wonderful win.
Nevertheless, this has been the most successful of all the British expeditions to Collecchio to play in the Massimo Romeo Trophy competition, and the GB Under-13 programme can build on the Cubs’ results to mount an even bigger challenge next year.
The Playoffs
This is the last day of the Massimo Romeo Youth Trophy, and both the Championship and Placing Playoffs reached a conclusion.
The Championship Playoff reached the Page Playoff stage, and the scores were as follows:
3 v 4 Game: GBD SD42 Moscomsport 5, Italy1 0
1 v 2 Game: Moscovia 3, Italy2 2
Pre-Final: GBD SD42 Moscomsport, Italy2 2
Final: Moscovia 6, GBD SD42 Moscomsport 3
The Placing Playoff, to determine places 5-10 in the tournament, consisted of a round-robin between the other six teams, with games played in the first round counting in this round. Scores in the Placing Playoff today were:
Moscovia Marino 13, London Cubs 12
Gepardy Zory 15, Akademiks 1
Czech Stars 20, Joudrs Prague 0
The final tournament standings were:
1. Moscovia
2. GBD SD42 Moscomsport
3. Italy 2
4. Italy 1
5. Czech Stars (5-0)
6. Gepardy Zory (4-1)
7. Moscovia Marino (3-2)
8. London Cubs (2-3)
9. Joudrs Prague (1-4)
10. Akademiks (0-5)