Saturday 26 August – The Mix captured their first-ever European trophy on Saturday at the European Women’s Cup in Zagreb, Croatia, coming from behind to win 2-1 a thrilling and well-played final against the host team, Princ Zagreb.
Meanwhile, at the European Women’s Cup Winners Cup B in Moergestel in the Netherlands, the Barbarians lost both their games on Saturday in a placing round-robin to finish the tournament in seventh place.
EUROPEAN WOMEN’S CUP FINAL
The Mix 2, Princ Zagreb 1
Pitcher Mary Murray threw a four-hit complete game gem and GB Women’s Team player Alana Snow came up with the clutch hit that decided a wonderful 
gold medal game at the European Women’s Cup as The Mix won the tournament at the fifth time of asking.
As a result, The Mix will be promoted to Europe’s top women’s club tournament, the Premier Cup, for 2024.
The Mix had been scoring pretty freely for most of this week in their undefeated run to the gold medal game. But the final was a pitching duel between Mary Murray for The Mix and veteran Austrian national team pitcher Martina Lackner-Keil for Princ Zagreb, where hits were hard to come by and runs even harder.
Both teams backed up their pitchers with excellent defense.
The Mix managed just six hits against Martina Lackner-Keil, while Mary Murray restricted Prince Zagreb to four. Each pitcher issued just one walk.
After three scoreless innings with very little threat from either side, the Croatians took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning.
Lenka Gunisova led off the inning with a single through the right side and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt before Mary Murray issued her only walk of the game to catcher Courney Ogle. When Ema Vrancic popped out short, it looked like The Mix might get out of the inning unscathed, but Martina Lackner-Keil drove a 2-2 pitch through the left side of the infield to help her own cause, as Gunisova scored to put the Croatians in front.
The Mix went down in order in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Princ Zagreb threatened again in the top of the fifth, two singles putting runners on first and second with two out. But Mary Murray got Michaela Haramina to ground into a force play to end the inning.
The breakthrough for The Mix finally came in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Crista Reed-Thomas beat out an infield hit, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Barbara Killer and moved to third when Emma Agostini grounded back to the pitcher. With two out, Sian Wigington then had a great at-bat, running the count to 3-2 and drawing Martina Lackner-Keil’s only walk of the game, bringing leadoff hitter Alana Snow to the plate.
Sian took second base without a throw while Alana took a strike, and then, on a 1-2 pitch, Alana sliced a line drive into left centre field that kept tailing away from centre field Lenka Gunisova and tipped off the end of her glove. Both runners scored, Alana slid into third with a triple, and The Mix had a 2-1 lead.
Could they hold it?
Princ Zagreb went down in order in the top of the sixth inning on a foul pop-up to third base and two fly balls to Alana Snow in centre field.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Jade Yerex led off with a bunt single to third base and stole second, but was left stranded.
The Mix had three more outs to negotiate in the top of the seventh inning, and two of them came quickly as Mary Murray continued to throw strikes, on a lazy fly ball to centre field and a one-hopper to second base.
The Croatians were down to their last out, and the game looked over when Nina Berisic hit a ground ball towards shortstop. Somehow, the ball got through Chelsie Robison, and the game was still alive.
But not for long.
The Croatians had a conference with their next batter, shortstop Tihana Herzenjak, and the strategy was to try a bunt. But the ball was bunted a bit too hard towards Mix third base player Emma Agostini, and her throw to first beat Herzenjak by a step.
The Mix were, deservedly, the 2023 European Women’s Cup champions!
Stats
As befits a team that went undefeated throughout the tournament, The Mix had some excellent stats.
Crista Reed-Thomas and Chelsie Robison, both at .500, led the tournament in batting, while Alana Snow was fifth at .381.
Chelsie and Alana Snow led the tournament with seven RBIS each, while Emma Agostini was third with six, and Alana Snow fifth with four.
Alana Snow led the tournament in runs with 12, and Crista Reed-Thomas was second in hits with nine.
Alana Snow led the tournament with three triples and Chelsie Robison had two.
Crista Reed-Thomas, Chelsie Robison, and Alana Snow were first, second and fourth in on-base percentage, and Chelsie, Alana, and Crista occupied the first three places in slugging percentage.
Mary Murray and Anna-Be Bartels were first and third in pitching ERA.
Scores and standings
Scores in today’s gold and bronze medal games at the European Women’s Cup were:
Bronze Medal Game
Warsaw Diamonds 4, Angels Dupnitsa 2
Gold Medal Game
The Mix 2, Princ Zagreb 1
Final tournament standings were:
1 – The Mix (Great Britain)
2 – Princ Zagreb (Croatia)
3 – Warsaw Diamonds (Poland)
4 – Angels Dupnitsa (Bulgaria)
EUROPEAN WOMEN’S CUP WINNERS CUP B
The Barbarians went into Saturday’s playoff involving the bottom three teams from the initial round-robin at the European Women’s Cup Winners Cup B knowing that they could finish fifth, sixth, or seventh in the final tournament standings.
This placing playoff consisted of a three-team round-robin involving the Titans from Botswana, who finished fifth in the initial round-robin; the Barbarians, who finished sixth; and the Croatian team Medvenica Mrki Medvedi, who finished seventh.
Unfortunately, by losing both games, the Barbarians wound up in seventh place in the final standings. But they will have relished the chance this tournament provided to get their feet wet in European competition, and if they can maintain their current second place in the Great Britain Fastpitch League Women’s Division, they will have a chance to return to Europe next year with the benefit of the experience gained this week.
Medvenica Mrki Medvedi 12, Barbarians 2
The Barbarians’ only win during the initial round-robin was their 4-2 victory on Tuesday over the Croatian team Medvenica Mrki Medvedi, but the British couldn’t replicate that result on Saturday.
Lea Maartens, Cheyenne Vogel and Yuki Ono all pitched for the Barbarians, and none of them could stop the Croatians piling up runs: one in the top of the first inning, five runs each in the second and third innings and a final run in the top of the fifth and final inning. The game ended after five innings on the mercy rule with the Barbarians trailing by 12-2.
The Croatian team only had seven hits over those five innings, but were the recipients of 10 walks and had two hit batters, whereas Enora Simon, who pitched a complete game for Medvenica, gave up only four hits and no walks.
The two runs scored by the Barbarians came in the bottom of the second inning, when they had three of their four hits. Julie Winkel led off the inning with a triple and scored on Sarah Kirchhoff’s single down the left field line, with Sarah getting all the way to third on the play. Sarah remained at third as the next two batters struck out, but scored on a single through the right side by Ellen Wolfs.
Those two runs cut the Croatian lead at the time to 6-2, but five more runs for Medvenica in the top of the third inning took the game out of reach.
The Barbarians were to have only one more baserunner in the game, on a two-out single by Lea Maartens in the bottom of the third inning. By that time the Croatian team, who had defeated the Titans from Botswana by a score of 9-2 earlier in the day, were cruising towards a fifth place finish in the tournament.
Titans 7, Barbarians 0
The Barbarians’ final game at the 2023 European Women’s Cup Winners Cup B was closely fought, a pitcher’s duel for four-and-a-half innings between Marijke van Kempen for the Barbarians and Taboka Nkalapi for the Titans from Botswana.
At that point, the score was only 2-0 for the Titans, who had scored single runs in the bottom of the third and fourth innings.
But the game changed in the bottom of the fifth.
Three singles, a double and an error resulted in four runs for the Titans with only one out, and the Barbarians brought in Cheyenne Vogel to pitch in relief of Marijke von Kempen with one Titan runner on base. The first batter Cheyenne faced reached on an error and the next two were walked, forcing in a run, bringing the score to 7-0, and ending the game on the mercy rule.
The Barbarians had only one hit against Taboka Nkalapi, a one-out triple by Ellen Wolfs down the left field line in the top of the third inning. But Ellen, who was the British team’s only baserunner in the game, was put out on Yuki Ono’s bunt.
The Barbarians finished the tournament with only one win in eight games, but were able to muster some excellent batting performances.
Lea Maartens led the team with an outstanding .462 average, while Julie Winkel hit .417 and tied for the tournament lead in doubles with three. Cheyenne Vogel and Ellen Wolfs both hit .333.
Marijke von Kempen, one of four Barbarians’ pitchers, finished the tournament with a very creditable 3.00 ERA.
Scores and standings
Scores from today’s placing games at the European Women’s Cup Winners Cup B, plus the bronze and gold medal games, are:
Placing Games
Medvenica Mrki Medvedi 9, Titans 2
Medvenica Mrki Medvedi 12, Barbarians 2
Titans 7, Barbarians 0
Bronze Medal Game
Zurich Challengers 8, Thunderbirds 0
Gold Medal Game
SV Roef 7, Crazy Chicklets 0
The final tournament standings are:
1 – SV Roef (Natherlands)
2 – Crazy Chicklets (Austria)
3 – Zurich Challengers (Switzerland)
4 – Thunderbirds (Israel)
5 – Medvenica Mrki Medvedi (Croatia)
6 – Titans (Botswana)
7 – Barbarians (Great Britain)