by Bob Fromer
Ronchi dei Legionari, Italy: August 3 -- The final first round group game against winless Croatia was something the GB Women's Team needed to get out of the way with a minimum of effort this afternoon at the European Women's Fastpitch Championships.
Energy needed to be saved for the start of the second round and the serious business of getting through to the Page Playoffs and a top three finish that would guarantee GB a place in the 2012 World Championships in Canada.
And the start of the second round was going to throw up a severe test this evening with a game against European Champions Holland.
Warming up
GB were never in danger against Croatia, eventually winning 7-0 on the mercy rule in five innings, as 18-year-old Carling Hare came through with another fine pitching performance, giving up only one hit and one walk in five innings.
But it took the GB offense a while to get going.
GB went down in order in the first inning. But first base player Morgan Parkerson led off the second with an inside-the-park home run that tipped off the glove of Croatian centre fielder Petra Cizmic, and Great Britain was on the scoreboard.
Two more runs came home later in the inning after Croatian starter Jihana Eupanic walked Ali Parkerson and Naomi Jones. Both runners moved around the bases on steals or wild pitches, Ali scored on a wild pitch and a single to right field by shortstop Steph Pearce drive in Naomi.
Finishing the job
GB failed to score in the third inning despite a single by Karlene Headley-Cooper and a walk to Leah English. But they did add a run in the fourth when Naomi Jones got all the way to second on an infield error and moved around to third and home on wild pitches.
The game against Croatia had started at 3.00 pm, and the British objective was to shorten the game so the team would have as much time as possible before playing Holland at 6.30 this evening.
Croatia duly obliged by self-destructing in the bottom of the fifth inning, allowing GB to score the three runs that ended the game on the mercy rule.
Morgan Parkerson walked to open the inning, went to second and third on wild pitches and scored when younger sister Ali Parkerson drove a single to left field. Rachael Watkeys then reached when her ground ball was fumbled at third base, and she was safe at second when the throw was dropped on a force play on Naomi Jones ground ball, allowing Ali to score. Steph Pearce reached first on a bunt single to load the bases, and when the Croatian shortstop threw wildly to home on Laura Thompson's grounder, Rachael scored the walk-off run.
What comes next
The first round groups are over and the eight teams moving forward in the tournament are Italy and GB from Pool A, the Netherlands and Spain from Pool B, Russia and Austria from Pool C and the Czech Republic and France from Pool D.
These eight teams now form two pools and each team will play three second-round games. The teams that finish first in each group will go direct to the Page Playoffs; the teams that finish fourth will be eliminated. he teams that finish second and third will play a cross-group elimination game with the winners progressing to the Page Playoffs.
So there is wriggle room here: GB can lose two out of three second-round games and still get through to the Page Playoffs -- though that certainly isn't the plan.
But it does take some of the pressure off tonight's game against the Dutch, as it's only the opening skirmish in a war that won't finish until Saturday night.
Previous stories on the GB Women's Fastpitch Team at the 2011 European Women's Championships can be found both on the Home Page and in the News column on this website.