By Bob Fromer
The BSF has a new Co-ed Slowpitch National Champion in 2016 after four straight years of dominance by the Chromies. In a thrilling Premier Nationals final played on Sunday 14 August, the Pioneers came back from an early seven-run deficit to carve out a walk-off 10-9 win over H2O.
The win by Pioneers, in a high-quality game with an exciting climax, only served to emphasise the dominance that the Pioneers and Chromies have exerted over this title in recent memory. One of these two teams has won the Premier Nationals in each of the past eight years and in 10 of the last 11, with only a win by the Dragons in 2008 breaking the sequence.
This was the Pioneers’ fourth national title, tying them with Baker Tomkins for second place on the all-time list that began in 1987. But the Chromies are still way out in front with nine National Championships and will no doubt be back looking for a 10th in 2017.
Other winners​
Four other national winners were also crowned in the BSF’s Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze categories, three of them after tense and exciting finals, as the 2016 BSF Co-ed Slowpitch National Championships were played in beautiful late summer weather across eight diamonds at Farnham Park on the weekend of 13-14 August.
In the Platinum Nationals, made up mainly of teams that competed this year in the BSF’s National Softball League 2, the title was won by the one team that didn’t. The Nottingham Sheriffs from the East Midlands League outlasted Ninos Privados from London by 14-13 in the final.
There was a similar winning margin in the Gold Nationals, where the Dodgers West from the Solent League hung on to beat the MouseRats from London by a final score of 13-12.
Another close final was played in the Silver Nationals, where the Angels from Oxford took the title with a 20-17 win over United Nations from the East Midlands.
It was only in the Bronze Nationals final that there was clearly a dominant team, with the Crosby Vikings from the Sefton Softball League on Merseyside posting a 20-5 win over the Rattlesnakes from Windsor.
Triumph and disappointment​
While the Pioneers celebrated their hard-earned Premier Nationals triumph, there was massive disappointment for H2O, who have been trying to win their first National Championship for many years and will never come any closer than they did on this occasion.
There was also disappointment for the Chromies, trying to win an unprecedented fifth straight Nationals title. With a squad depleted by absence, injury and illness after coming second in the European Co-ed Slowpitch Super Cup that ended on the previous weekend in Austria, Chromies won only one of five pool games on Saturday. Despite their reputation for escapology and a defiant two wins on Sunday, that was too big a hole to crawl out of and Chromies failed to qualify for the Page Playoffs.
Chromies’ Manager Doug Clouston said afterward that he had hoped rather than expected the Chromies to win this time around, and that the European Slowpitch Cup had taken a lot out of his team. But he also admitted that an aging team may need an injection of new and younger players before they can regain the heights.
By contrast, there appeared to be no ill effects from playing in and winning the European Slowpitch Super Cup as far as H2O was concerned. Although they only made the Page Playoffs in fourth position after coasting through their last pool game on Sunday morning, H2O saw off a strong Legends team by a score of 18-10 in the 3 v 4 Page Playoff game, then dominated Blue Steel 16-2 in the game to determine which team would play Pioneers in the final.
Pioneers had advanced to the final with a comfortable 17-8 win over Blue Steel in the 1 v 2 Page Playoff game.
The last two games of the Premier Nationals – the pre-final between H2O and Blue Steel and then the final between H2O and Pioneers – were webstreamed live and can be seen on demand at BSUK.tv.
Placings
Blue Steel, who hit well throughout most of the weekend and finished second to Pioneers in round-robin play, never really found their offense in their two Page Playoff defeats and had to settle for the bronze medal.
Legends, another team that displayed offensive power over much of the weekend but couldn’t duplicate it in the playoffs, finished fourth.
The team that finished fifth, just out of the playoff positions, was Thunder from Manchester, who had an excellent weekend, finishing with three wins, a draw and three tough losses against strong teams. Thunder’s chance of making the playoffs depended on the last pool game on Sunday morning between H2O and Blue Steel, where a win by H2O would have put Thunder into the playoffs and moved Blue Steel down to fifth position. H2O already had a playoff place secured, so Blue Steel was the more motivated team and won the game 15-8 with a barrage of base hits – something they completely failed to duplicate when they met H2O again in the playoffs a couple of hours later.
Luis Arrevillagas from Thunder was disappointed not to make the playoffs, but was keen to point out that the near-miss shows the progress the Manchester team is making.
Chromies’ two wins on Sunday morning meant they finished in sixth position.
Seventh place went to the Knights, who played much better softball than their record of two wins and five losses would suggest.
The Slammers, who finished eighth in this year’s NSL 1 competition and just managed to secure a place in the Premier Nationals, were at least consistent, and finished eighth again on the weekend.
Premier Nationals Final
This was an excellent game of slowpitch softball between two very good teams, and for the first four-and-a-half innings, it appeared to be going only one way.
A lone run in the top of the first inning by H2O, driven in on a single by Chris Yoxall, was the only run either team managed in the first two innings. GB Slowpitch Team pitchers Roger Grooms and Dan Spinks were hitting their spots, and two outstanding shortstops – Steve Hazard for Pioneers and Ethan Solomon for H2O -- were hoovering up everything that came their way.
But H2O’s offense broke out of the straitjacket in the top of the third inning, and it started with the one thing Dan Spinks didn’t want to do – walk Amy Wells, the #10 hitter in the opposing line-up. An error and a single followed to load the bases, and then H2O began to bring in the runs. Chris Yoxall and Annie Dubovec both hit long sacrifice flies to left field, Ethan Solomon drove in a third run with a double to left and Kim Miller’s single to centre brought in a fourth.
Suddenly, H2O were 5-0 up – not a serious scoreline yet as far as Pioneers were concerned, but it got a little more serious when they went down in order on three infield ground balls in the bottom of the third inning. Where were the Pioneers’ bats?
H2O stretched the lead to 7-0 in the top of the fourth inning with a two-out rally that began with a sharp single to centre field from Amy Wells, followed by three more singles by Neil Selvester, Kirstie Leach and Chris Yoxall.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Pioneers finally got on the scoreboard, to loud cheers from their dugout, when Steve Hazard and Dan Spinks both doubled. But that run was immediately cancelled out in the top of the fifth inning when H2O’s lead-off hitter, Ethan Solomon, parked a 1-0 pitch over the fence in left field to take the lead back to 8-1.
With one out in that same inning, Dan Armstrong smoked a pinch-hit ground rule double, and that’s when the Pioneers made a decision that may have been the turning point in the game. Out came Dan Spinks and in to pitch came the left-handed Steve Rice, just to give the H2O hitters a different look. More runs at this point, and the Pioneers would be staring at a serious mountain to climb.
At first, it didn’t seem a great decision, as the first batter Steve Rice faced was Konstantina Paniotis, and she smashed a single into right field – a ball hit so hard that Lee Cornwall, re-entered to run for Dan Armstrong, had to hold at third base. And now H2O and GB Slowpitch Team Manager Stephen Patterson, who has built up an amazing record of success with substitutions, sent up another pinch-hitter in the form of the power-hitting Brian Connolly, looking for that three-run home run that might put the game out of reach.
But Brian took a rare called third strike on the outside corner on an 0-2 count and Amy Wells flew out to left field. The inning was over, no further runs had scored, and though Pioneers were still 8-1 down, that dramatic strikeout of Brian Connolly felt like it might have changed the game.
Those suspicions were confirmed when Pioneers put up five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to bring an 8-1 deficit back to 8-6.
Steve Rice, Chelsie Robison and Dan Bello all singled to open the inning, with Steve coming around to score. Then came the rally-killer -- a slick 1-6-3 double play as Kim Akehurst bounced back to Roger Grooms. But Pioneers didn’t quit. Fleeta Chew-Siegel singled to drive in Chelsie to make the score 8-3 and Amy Rice reached on an error. And now it was Steve Hazard coming to the plate, with just one thought on his mind and that of most of the spectators – not to mention H2O pitcher Roger Grooms. Could Steve hit the ball out and bring Pioneers back into the game?
Yes he could – a majestic drive over the fence in centre field that cut the Pioneers’ deficit to just two runs. Jenny Ball followed by bouncing out to third base to end the inning, but the momentum now was all with Pioneers.
H2O went down quickly in the top of the sixth inning, Pioneers came back in, and their first eight batters in the bottom of the sixth produced seven singles, sprayed to all parts of the field. Fortunately for H2O, there was another double play in the middle of all those base hits, and so the result was only three runs. But when Dan Bello scored on Fleeta Chew-Siegel’s single, Pioneers had the lead, for the first time in the game, at 9-8.
And the inning wasn’t over, because Amy Rice’s single to left field loaded the bases and brought Steve Hazard back to the plate. But now the late afternoon sun was directly behind the pitcher and in the batter’s eyeline, and even though Steve went back to the dugout for sunglasses after taking two strikes from Roger Grooms, it didn’t help. Steve hit a one-hopper back to Roger, and the inning was over.
But suddenly, in a game where they had led throughout, H2O were now behind and had only one at-bat left to do something about it – with Dan Spinks, who had re-entered to pitch for Pioneers in the sixth inning, throwing every ball high and into the sun.
Somehow, H2O managed it – with a little help from Pioneers. Kim Miller singled with one out, and Stephen Patterson sent up Stewart Butcher to pinch-hit, looking for extra-base power to drive Kim around. And now they got a break, when Stewart’s fly ball to right centre field was dropped. But Michelle Collier, sent up to pinch-hit, was clearly having trouble seeing the ball as Dan Spinks threw three high pitches up into the sun. Michelle took the first two for strikes and could only foul out on the third.
So that brought up Roger Grooms as the last hope for H2O, and Roger managed to see enough of the ball to punch a single back through the middle into centre field, bringing in Kim Miller with a dramatic tying run. But Amy Wells bounced out to Jenny Ball at third to end the inning, and H2O had no margin for error. Pioneers would bring up the middle part of their line-up in the bottom of the seventh inning, and one run would win the game.
Jenny Ball led off the bottom of the seventh with a base hit to left centre field to put the winning run on board, and the next batter, Dan Spinks, went for the fences -- and didn’t quite make it. His deep fly ball to left field was caught in foul territory by Neil Selvester, but Jenny Ball was able to tag up and move to second base, putting the winning run in scoring position and taking the force play away from H2O. And that was crucial when Laura Brockman hit a bouncer to shortstop Ethan Solomon near second base. Ethan would almost certainly have turned that into an inning-ending double play had Jenny still been on first, but as it was, it was only the second out.
Still, H2O could see at least the possibility of taking the game to extra innings and the tie-break. But first, they had to contend with Steve Rice, who had yet to get a hit in two previous at-bats. H2O shifted both their infield and outfield around to the right – but it didn’t do them any good. Steve drove the ball back up the middle, past second base, Jenny Ball came around to score, and after that four-year wait, Pioneers were National Champions once again.
FINAL PLACINGS
Premier Nationals
1 – Pioneers
2 – H2O
3 – Blue Steel
4 – Legends
5 – Thunder
6 – Chromies
7 – Knights
8 – Slammers
Platinum Nationals
1 – Sheriffs (East Midlands)
2 – Ninos Privados (London)
3 – Blitz (London)
4 – KKs (London)
5 – Dodgers (Manchester)
6 – Misfits (East Midlands)
7 – SPAM (London)
Gold Nationals
1 – Dodgers West (Solent)
2 – MouseRats (London)
3 – Base Invaders (London
Scorgs (Bristol)
5 – Chokers (Leeds)
Mavericks II (Manchester)
Silver Nationals
1 – Angels (Oxford)
2 – United Nations (East Midlands)
3 – Mutineers (Manchester)
Scorchers (Windsor)
5 – Meerkats (Manchester)
Redbacks (East Midlands)
Bronze Nationals
1 – Crosby Vikings (Sefton)
2 – Rattlesnakes (Windsor)
3 – Base Invaders (Bristol)
LASL All-Star Rookies (London)
Past National Championship Winners
The full list of National Championship winners shows how dominant the Chromies have been over the past decade – but not in 2016:
2016 -- Pioneers
2015 -- Chromies
2014 – Chromies
2013 – Chromies
2012 – Chromies
2011 – Pioneers
2010 – Pioneers
2009 – Chromies
2008 – Dragons
2007 – Chromies
2006 – Chromies
2005 – Slammers
2004 – Chromies
2003 – Stingrays
2002 – Pioneers
2001 – Baker Tomkins
2000 – Baker Tomkins
1999 – Baker Tomkins
1998 – Baker Tomkins
1997 – Chromies (then known as Superchrome)
1996 – Windsor Dodgers
1995 – Genies
1994 – Slammers
1993 – Isherwood
1992 – Slammers
1991 – Meteors
1990 – Sliders
1989 – Pirates
1988 – London New Zealand
1987 – Pirates
Photos by Phil Kielthy