Second day of the European Championship Women – sixteen games, two extra-inning games, twelve mercied games, three-run walk-off homerun

Day two started with the longest game of the day. Russia played France for two hours and sixteen minutes. The game was very tight until Russians scored 9 runs in the seventh. The score 14:1 doesn’t look like what the game looked like.

Four games with no runs on one side were played later that day back to back. First, Netherlands vs. Israel: 15:0, Sweden scored 14 times, leaving Denmark with zero. When Italy vs. Greece was finished, the highest number of the day – number 20 was on the scoreboard. Russia is closing the series with 15:0 against Poland.

First extra-inning game was played between Slovakia and Switzerland, both teams did well in their offence, but also accumulated a number of defensive errors. Switzerland didn’t manage to get their runner from the second base to score in the 8th inning. Slovakia won the game after a hit and a fielding error.

Another tie-breaker game between France and Spain had to be decided in the 10th inning. The players showed some outstanding plays and the audience was pleased by a number of nice hits. After a nerve-wrecking game, Spain won 9:8.

Team Ireland, who is attending their firts fastpitch championship ever, was very happy with their performance today as Colum Lavery (team's manager) said: „Yesterday, we got our first runners on the bases, today, we scored our first runs. Tomorrow, we might win our first game!“

Evening game; Italy vs. Great Britain was expected to be a tight game of a few runs. However, Italians  showed a great performance lead by Greta Cechetti in the defence (14 strike outs) and with a strong line up. The game was closed by a three-run walk-off homerun by Casteli.

The last round-robin games are scheduled for tomorrow. Germany and Sweden will play for the second spot in their pool at 11:45, Ireland will fight for their historical succes at 16:15, playing Slovenia. Make sure to follow the afternoon games, when the stronger teams will meet, therefore tighter and more thrilling softball is expected.

Schedule and scoring here

Check out some pics by Dirk Steffen at the ESF Facebook

And more news at the EChW Twitter and Facebook

-HNov-