Team USA defeated the GB Masters in the final of the 2016 Softball World Series tournament at the Heston Venue in Cranford on the weekend of 10-11 September, to register their third win in the 19 years the event has been running.
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Team USA Captain Duncan Waugh said, “It feels like it was a long time coming!”
The tournament was plagued by rain on Saturday, but the weather improved significantly on Sunday.
The USA has been close to winning the World Series in recent years, despite their last title coming in 2005, so their triumph was not a complete surprise. What was surprising was that last year’s winners, the UCE Travellers from Germany, and England, who finished third in 2015, both wound up in the second-tier Plate competition this time around after the first day’s round-robins had sorted the 18 teams into Trophy, Plate and Cup playoff groups, each playing for prizes.
One team was completely new to the tournament this year – the Real Moms from the Netherlands (shown below) -- and they found the going tough, finishing in fourth place in the third-tier Cup competition, and 16th out of 18 overall.
Wayne’s World from the Czech Republic (pictured below) made their second appearance in the World Series and finished fifth in the Cup section and 17th overall.
The dubious honour of finishing 18th and last was taken by Latinoamerica (below).
Trophy Competition​
The score in the final was 12-6 to USA – close but not close enough for the GB Masters, who had lost even more emphatically to the Americans, 23-11, in the 1 v 2 Page Playoff game in the Trophy competition earlier on Sunday afternoon.
GB Masters then clawed their way back to the final with a tense 10-8 win over the GB Futures Team, previously known as GB Development, who had earlier defeated Africa 8-4 in the 3 v 4 Page Playoff game, leaving Africa in fourth position.
It was the first time in several years that Africa had finished the tournament in one of the top six places, after winning it four times in five years in the early 2000s.
In the fifth place game, the Anzacs, who had the last of their four World Series wins in 2013, swamped the Craicers from Ireland 21-5.
More details on the Trophy Final are below.
Plate Competition​
The Plate Competition was won by Munster, who defeated Scotland 23-8 in the final after beating them only 8-5 in the 1 v 2 Page Playoff game.
Scotland (shown below) reached the final with a 14-10 win over England, who had overwhelmed Canada 29-5 in the 3 v 4 Page Playoff game.
UCE Travellers from Germany finished fifth in this group, and 11th overall, with a win over the Orcas from Switzerland, who were pleased to have made the second tier playoffs. For the UCE Travellers, however, this was a big drop-off after becoming the first overseas-based team to win the tournament last year.
Cup Competition​
The Cup competition was won by Japan, who edged out The Cage from Belgium 8-7 in the final. But Japan had to get to the final the hard way after their 1 v 2 Page Playoff game resulted in a one-run loss to The Cage by a score of 13-12.
Japan then prevailed by 11-8 over Wales to get back to the final and leave Wales in third place. The Welsh had defeated the Real Moms 15-5 in the 3 v 4 Page Playoff game.
In the battle for fifth place in this group, Wayne’s World defeated Latinoamerica 11-9.
The final standings in the Trophy, Plate and Cup competitions, and the overall standings for the tournament, can be seen below.
Trophy Final
Special report by Duncan Waugh:
In the Trophy Final, the two teams from the 1 v 2 Page Playoff game -- Team USA and the GB Masters -- squared off for a second time. In their first meeting, the Americans had scored 14 runs in the first inning en route to a 23-11 win. This result gave Team USA the long break before the final, while the GB Masters needed to overcome the challenge of the GB Futures Team.
Fortunately for those watching from the Pavilion, the final proved a more competitive affair.
GB Masters won the toss and elected to be the home team, just as they had two hours earlier. Roger Grooms was the pitcher this time instead of David Lee, and he proved effective in keeping the American bats quiet in the early innings: Team USA only managed two runs on two hits over the first four innings.
But the Masters only managed to get four runs themselves over the same stretch, due in part to excellent pitching and fielding from Team USA’s Kevin Quiney.
With the score 4-2 in favour of GB Masters going into the fifth inning, and perhaps feeling the momentum slipping away, Team USA had a team meeting on the field to assess the situation. From that point, the game seemed to turn.
In the top of the fifth inning, with the middle of the line-up due to bat, Team USA started to string some hits together off Roger Grooms. Dan Bello and Szilvi Varadi led off with singles, and Fleeta Seigel drove both of them in with a base hit of his own. Jackie Strey kept the hit train rolling, followed by her Blue Steel teammate Bryan Tavares, and after further hits by Tara Feeney and Kevin Quiney, USA had put six runs on the board for an 8-4 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Kirstie Leach, Chris Yoxall and Claude Snape went down in order for the GB Masters after testing Dan Bello and Chiya Louie’s gloves at SS and 3B unsuccessfully.
Determined to build on their first lead since the second inning, the Americans staged a two-out rally in the top of the sixth inning, with RBI’s from Szilvi Varadi, pinch-hitter Duncan Waugh, Jackie Strey and Tara Feeney.
In response, the GB Masters also put together a two-out rally of their own, with doubles from Ian Kulka and pinch-hitter Michelle Collier and singles from Roger Grooms and pinch-hitter Ruth Macintosh.
This made the score 12-6 to Team USA going into the final inning.
Pinch-hitter Amy Tanner and lead-off hitter Jett Russell opened the top of the seventh inning with singles for USA, but that was all that could be mustered as Michelle DeCarlo, Alex Oelfke and Chiya Louie came up empty.
With six runs needed in the bottom of the seventh, the Masters had the heart of their line-up coming up. Kirstie Leach opened with a line-drive comebacker to the pitcher, which Kevin Quiney took handily for the first out. Chris Yoxall managed to reach base on a throwing error, but Claude Snape flew out to Jett Russell in right centre field for the second out. At this point, Stewart Butcher was called upon to pinch-hit for Ben Taylor with the game on the line. Stewart sent the ball towards a gap in right centre field, but was robbed by a remarkable sliding catch by Jackie Strey to end the game and give Team USA their first World Series title in 11 years.
Beyond their consistency as contenders over the years, this victory was ultimately very special given that the team went undefeated on the weekend and that Sunday was the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York. This was something very much present in the minds of the team, especially with five members of the USAFE in the squad.
MVPs for the final were Kevin Quiney and Jackie Strey from Team USA for their exploits in the field and at the plate.
RESULTS
Final Trophy Standings
1 – USA
2 – GB Masters
3 – GB Futures
4 – Africa
5 -- Anzacs
6 – Craicers (Ireland)
Final Plate Standings
7 – Munster (Ireland)
8 – Scotland
9 – England
10 – Canada
11 – UCE Travellers (Germany)
12 – Orcas (Switzerland)
Final Cup Standings
13 – Japan
14 – The Cage (Belgium)
15 – Wales
16 – Real Moms (Netherlands)
17 – Wayne’s World (Czech Republic)
18 – Latinoameric
WORLD SERIES WINNERS
1999 – England
2000 – Africa
2001 – Africa
2002 – USA
2003 – Africa
2004 – Africa
2005 – USA
2006 – Rest of the World
2007 – Anzacs
2008 – Anzacs
2009 – England
2010 - Lakenheath Eagles
2011 – Lakenheath Eagles
2012 – Anzacs
2013 – Anzacs
2014 – England
2015 – UCE Travellers (Germany)
2016 -- USA
