march2013

GB Men keep World Championship dreams alive

March 6, 2013

Auckland, NZ

 

ORIGINAL STORY

GB Men keep World Championship dreams alive

Wed 6 Mar 2013

Auckland, New Zealand: March 6 – As GB Team Manager Steve Fullan said afterwards, “We finally got the monkey off our backs!”

The 500-pound gorilla of which he spoke was GB's record against the Czech Republic in men's fastpitch softball.  Records going back to the beginning of time, or at least to the founding of the GB Men's Fastpitch Team in the late 1990s, are not immediately available, but GB has probably never beaten the Czechs in an ESF or ISF competition.

So Day 6 of the round-robin phase at the ISF Men's World Championships was about as good a time as you could pick to finally get it done.  GB's 7-4 win today over their nemesis in an incident-filled and error-strewn game keeps their hopes of reaching the playoff round alive, with a final round-robin game to come tomorrow against the United States.

But suddenly, the permutations around who might fill the third and fourth positions in Pool A (the top four will make the playoffs) are becoming complicated – though the top two positions are settled, with Australia unbeaten on 6-0 and Venezuela second on 4-2 but with only the hapless Indonesians left to play.

Going into the final day's play, GB, the United States, the Czechs and Samoa are all sitting on 3-3 records.  Samoa has beaten GB and the US.  The Czechs have beaten Samoa but lost to GB and the US.  GB has lost to Samoa, beaten the Czechs and plays the US tomorrow.  The US has lost to Samoa, beaten the Czechs and has yet to play GB.

When tomorrow comes, GB and the US will play each other, the Czechs will play the undefeated World Champions Australia and Samoa will finish with South Africa, currently 2-4 but not to be taken lightly (they have beaten the US and only lost to GB by 2-0).

A win over the US should do the trick for GB, coupled with the likelihood that the Czechs will lose to Australia.  But a loss to the US will mean that qualification for GB is unlikely.

Whatever happens, though, the GB Men's Team has shown skill and no little courage to come back from an 0-3 start in the World Championships to where they are today, with qualification still in their own hands.

Tough pitching

GB won this game because their #1 pitcher, James Darby, survived an extremely shaky start in the first inning, giving up only one run when it could have been many more, and then set the Czechs down in routine fashion over the next four innings, allowing only two singles and no walks over that span.

James gave up only four hits in total to a normally hard-hitting Czech team, walked five but struck out 10.

And by the time the Czechs began to threaten again, in the sixth and seventh innings, GB had built up a 6-1 lead off Czech pitchers Jonas Mach and Jaroslav Muller on nine hits, just one walk, but four Czech errors.

The tenth and final GB hit, in the bottom of the sixth inning, was a pinch-hit home run by James Chalmers that made the score 7-3 at the time and meant that an answering solo home by Patrik Kolkus in the top of the seventh meant nothing beyond narrowing the final score to 7-4.

The GB defense, generally solid throughout the tournament, committed three errors of their own, and one of them led to a Czech run.  But two of GB's runs were unearned, and sloppy play by the Czech defense was certainly a factor in their downfall.

Scary start

The game could not have had a worse start for Great Britain.  Czech leadoff hitter David Mertl worked a walk, Petr Vacha reached on an error by Darrin Newson at third base and Patrik Kolkus walked to load the bases with no one out.

Clean-up hitter Vaclav Svoboda hit a bouncer to Darrin Newson, who threw to Kevin Stockford for a force play at the plate, but when Lukas Holub walked, the Czechs had a 1-0 lead, the bases were still loaded, and the game was in danger of getting away.

But first baseman Tomas Klein grounded back to James Darby, who threw home for another force play at the plate and Karel Kadecka grounded out to the busy Darrin Newson.

GB were behind, but it could have been so much worse.

Going ahead

And in the bottom of the second inning, GB took the lead when left fielder Luke Peters hit a one-out single, moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by Morgan Ottridge and trotted home as Darrin Newson made up for his first-inning error by driving the ball out of the park.

That made the score 2-1, and it was a lead that GB would never relinquish.

And while James Darby was keeping the Czech hitters quiet, GB extended the lead in the bottom of the third with a little help from their opponents.

Second baseman Ryan Martin led off the inning with a double, and that was enough for the Czechs to take out starter Jonas Mach and bring in Jaroslav Muller.  The first batter he faced was first baseman Rich Haldane, and he reached on an error by shortstop Vaclav Svoboda that brought Ryan around to score.

Kevin Stockford popped to the pitcher on an attempted bunt and James Darby struck out swinging, but a single by Luke Peters moved Rich Haldane to second, and a base hit by Morgan Ottridge brought Josh Peat, pinch-running for Rich, in to score.

Suddenly, GB were ahead 4-1.

Padding the lead

That 4-1 lead became a lot more comfortable 6-1 margin in the bottom of the fourth inning as shortstop Steve Hazard, Ryan Martin and Rich Haldane hit consecutive singles with one out.  Rich's single drove in Steve and sent Ryan to third.

The Czechs then flip-flopped their pitchers, with starter Jonas Mach coming back in for Jarsoslav Muller.  But a second run scored almost immediately as third baseman Karel Kadecka misplayed Kevin Stockford's grounder and Ryan Martin crossed the plate.

Czech rally

The Czechs finally mounted a rally late in the game, but it was too little and too late.  Two runs scored in the bottom of the sixth inning on a single by Vaclav Svoboda, a walk to Tomas Klein and a double by Tomas Vobornik to make the score 6-3.

But Tomas Jelinek flew out to end the threat, and all that was left was the exchange of solo home runs by James Chalmers for GB in the bottom of the sixth and Patrik Kolkus for the Czechs in the top of the seventh.

It was a historic and timely win for Great Britain.  But it will take another huge effort tomorrow to realise the potential of this victory by getting past the United States and into the playoffs.

Scores

Results from Day 6 of the World Championship round-robin stage  were:

South Africa 6, Indonesia 1 USA 9, Venezuela 3 Japan 9, Philippines 0 Great Britain 7, Czech Republic 4 Canada 8, Colombia 0 Australia 3, Samoa 2 Argentina  2, Mexico New Zealand 11, Netherlands 0

Standings

The standings with one day of round-robin play remaining (the top four teams in each pool will make the playoffs) look like this:

Pool A Australia (6-0) Venezuela (4-2) Czech Republic (3-3) Great Britain (3-3) Samoa (3-3) USA (3-3) South Africa (2-4) Indonesia (0-6)

Pool B Canada (5-1) New Zealand (5-1) Argentina (5-1) Japan (4-2) Colombia (3-3) Mexico (2-4) Netherlands (1-5) Philippines (0-6)

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