On the weekend of April 29-May 1, the ninth Forever Fastpitch tournament was held in Zagreb, Croatia.

Six teams from four countries took part: the Angels and Athletics from Bulgaria, the Barracudas from Denmark, the Slovenian National Team, the Croatian Junior National Team and the host team Princ Zagreb.

Friday

The tournament began on Friday afternoon with three games, and the scores were:

Dupnitsa Angels 8, Croatia Juniors 0 Princ Zagreb 1, Barracudas 0 Princ Zagreb 19, Athletics 4

Saturday

Games started at 9.00 am on Saturday morning and went on until 7.00 pm -- a long day full of beautiful weather and great games.  The scores from the morning games were:

Slovenia 13, Angels 3 Barracudas 10, Athletics 1 Slovenia 11, Croatia Juniors 0

The second round of the tournament began in the afternoon and the scores were:

Princ Zagreb 5, Slovenia 1 Croatia Juniors 9, Athletics 5 Slovenia 6, Barracudas 4 Angels 7, Croatia Juniors 3 Angels 7, Athletics 4

At the end of the day, the top two teams played, and Princ Zagreb defeated Slovenia 9-4, a result which sent the host team to the final.

Sunday

The weather failed to cooperate on Sunday but it was not going to stop the tournament from finishing. 

The Barracudas lost to the Angels by 16-3 and took fourth place. 

Slovenia had another chance to get to the final but could not defeat the Angels and had to settle for third place.

Games then had to be moved to the B field due to heavy rain, and the Croatia Juniors lost a close game to the Athletics by 12-9 (the last play was tag out at home with the tying run on base).

After a short break to get the field ready, the final between Princ Zagreb and the Dupnitsa Angels begun.

The Angels managed to score two runs in the first inning, but that was all they could manage, as two Zagreb pitchers shut them down for the rest of the game.  In the meantime, the host showed off their offense, scoring nine runs in five innings, including Katarina Prskalo’s walk-off RBI single that put an early end to the game on the mercy rule.

Final rankings

1 -- Princ Zagreb 2 -- Angels Dupnitsa 3 – Slovenia National Team  4 -- Barracudas Denmark 5 -- Athletics Sofia 6 -- Croatia Junior National Team

Final speeches to close the tournament were given by ESF Secretary General Ami Baran, ESF Vice President Mette Nissen and Henrietta Gilhoj, President of the Danish Softball Federation.

It was a fun-filled softball weekend, and there will be another tournament for women’s and junior teams in Zagreb, the October Ball Game, on 15-16 October.

-Petra Cizmic, Helena Novotná-