Day 5 – fifteen games, first historical Ireland’s win, tie-breaker game between Czechs and the Dutch team, 3 HR by the Dutch (Oosting, Kosterink, Vonk)

Wednesday started with a game between Israel and Ireland, both squads really wanted to win this game as that would be their first win at the championship. Ireland started off very well with scoring in the first and in the second as well, taking the lead 4:0 also thanks to some pitching problems on the Israeli side. Israel tried to catch up with a single run in the bottom of second, however Ireland showed their passion and added another six runs in the third. Historically first win of the Ireland team at the fastpitch championship was born and it was on a run-ahead rule! 10:3.

Also teams from the H a G groups continued their „lower eight“ fights. The four best teams from these groups are now enetring the page systém where the  first two teams are playing for the „little final“ and the other two are fighting for the chance to play for the final too.

The top six teams of the tournament (Netherlands, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia, Great Britain and Austria) went on with completing the scoreboard.

Russia scored first in the second and added one more run in the fifth against Italy. Italy answered in the sixth with three runs scored on a hit and a fielding error.

At the same time Austria played for their fifth spot that they’ve dreamed of. The way lead through beating team GB. And Austria did well as well as the British team. Everytime one team scored, the other team tied. The score was 3:3 entering the sixth, when finally GB took the lead and didn’t let go anymore. You could feel the Austrian determination, Martina Lackner, the pitcher was concentrated from the beggining till the last pitch. But that was’n good enough for the Austrian team. Great Britain won 4:3.

The tightest game of the day was the following though. Czech Republic vs. Netherlands broke some records. Czech pitcher, Lucie Zappova only allowed four hits. The Dutch squad scored first after a fielding error, but in the fourth, the Czech team took the lead. 2:1. The score was increasing slowly point by point on both sides. After the seventh it was 3:3 and the teams entered their extra inning. Czechs scored once. The Dutch team then finally hit the ball and won the game on Dinet Oosting’s long shot, she also homered earlier that game. Netherlands : Czech Republic – 5:4. According to the stats, this was the first time since 2009 that someone scored more than 3 runs playing the Dutch team.

On Friday the top six teams will finish their last games which will determin their position in which they will enter the page system – the final phase of the championship.

As the last two days of the tournament are starting the LIVE STREAMING is on! Watch here

-HNov-