From the June 30th until July 6th, 23 European teams competed to earn the title of Women’s European Champion of 2019. The total of 113 games of this tournament were played on five different fields, in four different ballparks in Ostrava, Frýdek-Místek (CZE), Żory and Rybnik (POL). 

Italy has won the Women’s European Championship 2019. After four years, they proved to be the strongest again and took home the gold medal just like they did in 2015. 

Final game
The final between the Netherlands and Italy is everything that you expected from a final game. With the Dutchies scoring one run in the first inning, and the Italians scoring one in the second, the game was tied 1-1 up until the fifth inning. In the fifth inning, it was Laura Vigna who hit it over the fence, good for a 2RBI homerun which gave the Italians a 1-3 lead. Virginie Anneveld made the game more dramatic again when her solo home run in the 6th changed the score to 2-3, but that was it. Greta Cecchetti closed her 7th Championship in her career with a strikeout and together with her team seized the 11th Women's European Championship title for her country. 

Bronze medal game
The bronze medal game was played between host team the Czech Republic and Great Britain. This was not the first time they faced each other in this tournament, so both knew what to expect. In their first game on Wednesday, it was Great Britain who got away with the win. In today's game, both teams weren't able to score any runs up until the third inning. In the bottom third inning, the Brits took an advantage of the pitching change on the Czech side. With two bases loaded, it was Nerissa Myers who hit it out of the park to give Great Britain a 3-0 lead. After that, the Brits were able to expand their lead to 5-0 with two more runs in the fifth inning. Even though the Czechs were able to score one run in the seventh, Georgina Corrick did her job for Great Britain, which means Great Britain went home with the bronze medal of this year's Women's European Championship with a 5-1 over the Czech Republic. 

Final standings:
1. Italy
2. The Netherlands
3. Great Britain
4. The Czech Republic
5. Spain
6. France
7. Greece
8. Ireland
9. Israel
10. Germany
11. Russia
12. Poland
13. Austria
14. Belgium
15. Sweden
16. Switzerland
17. Croatia
18. Ukraine
19. Slovakia
20. Denmark
21. Lithuania
22. Hungary
23. Turkey

Final results and stats HERE.
Photos at Softball Europe FB

- Romy Marinus -
/Picture by Grega Valancic/