The European competitions in 2010 finished last week with the to European Cups for clubteams.
Earlier this year, in july, the European Championship for national teams (held every 2 years) was decided in the city of Havlickuv Brod in the Czech republick. A small town with a beautiful softball stadium! The Czechs were favorites going in to the tournament, having won the previous 3 EC's. Challengers to the title: Denmark, Holland and Great Britain, with Belgium, Israel, Croatia and Slovakia rounding of the field.. The Czechs where undefeated in the round robin section with a combined score of 85-3. Supported by an enthusiastic home crowd, Czech batters lead by David Mertl, Vaclav Svoboda and Patrick Kolkus backed ace Jaroslav Müller's strong pitching. Coming in second: a young danish team lead by pitching veteran Jesper Panduro, and 3rd spot going to GB behind Australian born ace James Darby. Holland took the last playoff spot.
The playoffs had the Czechs and Denmark playing for a spot in the Grand Final. A very nice game in front of a large crowd. Danish slugger Daniel Julenon homered in the first inning, and that run proved to be enough, as Valdemar Terkelsen and Jesper Panduro combined for a shutout, stunning the home favorites. In the 3-4 game, GB beat Holland 8-7, scoring 5 runs in the top of the 7. inning in a great comeback win!
On the last day. The Czechs had no problem beating GB 11-4 in 6 innings, so the European Final was ( for the fourth time in a row) set between Czech Republic and Denmark. Again a large crowd filled the stadium and for the first time, the final was broadcasted live on national Czech TV. Veteran Jesper Panduro, playing in a record 10th European Championship for Denmark, faced off against Jaroslav Müller. The two teams once again played a very nice game of fastpitch. Czechs took the lead with a run in the 3rd and another in the 5th. Things turned around in the bottom of the 6th, when the danes finally got to Müller with a 5 run rally, highlighted by a 2-run bloop double by Jacob Berger, just of the glove of centerfielder Petr Vaha. The Czechs could'nt answer, so for the first time ever, the Danes could take home the European Championship! After the tournament Daniel Julenon of Denmark was awarded the ”best batter” and MVP awards. ”Best pitcher” award went to Czech Emanuel Bajer.
At the club level, there are anually 2 European Cups – one being for all the national champions in Europe, the other one – the Cup Winners Cup -for all the runner ups.
The European Cup was held in Ronchi dei Legionari in northern Italy with the champions from Czech Republic, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Croatia and France + the defending champion Chomutov Beavers from Czech Rep. forming a 7 team tournament. After round robin play, the Beavers came out on top with dutch team Spikes in second, the danish Vandals in 3rd and czech Eagles taking the 4th spot.
Beavers beat Spikes, to go to Grand Final, with a score of 3-0. Czechs got 3 runs to back veteran Lubos Vrbensky's shutout with last run coming on a homerun from Jiri Peksa. In 3-4 game, Vandals narrowly beat Eagles 2-1. Vandals put 2 on the board in 4th taking advantage of a couple of czech errors and Eagles could only get one back on a Pavel Just homerun. Eagles Jonas Mach – coming home from a great ISC tournament – took the loss.
On the last day, the dutch Spikes advanced to the Grand Final with a 3-1 win over Vandals. All runs in the game came from homeruns: Vandals pitcher Jesper Panduro in the 4th and Spikes catcher Ben Ten Pas in bottom of 6th. Finally Javier Enriques hit a dramatic walk off homerun in the 8th win.
In the Grand Final, the defending Champs proved to be to much for the Spikes. The Beavers scored 4 runs in the first and cruised home for a 7-1 victory three-peating as European Champs. Müller an Vrbensky combined for a 2-hitter, beating dutch Kiwi's Iosefo and Rauhihi. Patrick Kolkus went deep for the Beavers and was named MVP of the tournament. Beavers swept individual awards, with Vaclav Svoboda as best batter and Jaroslav Müller as best pitcher.
