Great Britain
Czechia
It’s coming home! GB Women have won the WBSC Europe Women’s Baseball European Championship after a seven-inning thriller against the hosts Czechia, their second game of the day.
The final began in style with both teams scoring two runs each in the first inning.
Great Britain scored another two runs through a double from Darier Malone and excellent base running in the top of the second inning and then made quick work of the Czech batters without giving them a chance to get any runners in.
Another run for GB in the third extended their lead over the Czech side to 5-2. and then once again held Czechia scoreless in the bottom of the inning.
Things started to get tense in the fourth when the Czech women not only kept GB from scoring but also managed to tie the game up.
However, both sides kept their cool and made quick work of each other in the fifth inning. Despite a triple from Scatliffe, neither team managed to score.
Just as Czechia seemed to do the same thing again in the sixth with a quick two up, two down, the British women ramped up the offense scoring another two runs through clever and aggressive base running before advancing to the bottom of the inning.
Two strike-outs, a ground out and only one Czech run later, Great Britain were still in the lead as they went into the final inning.
GB’s offense sprang into action and scored two runs with Scatliffe hitting a big double.
Up by 9 – 6, it was up to the defence to keep the Czech women to two runs or less to allow Great Britain to take the win.
The bottom of the seventh started strong for the British women with the first two batters also being the first two outs.
But everyone in Hluboká started holding their breaths when a wild pitch allowed the next Czech batter to get on base – and then to score after a triple by her team mate Silvie Hanzalová.
It was Scatliffe who caused the dug out to erupt with cheering when she struck out the final Czech hitter – and sealed the deal for the British women with a final score of 9 – 7.
Overall, Natasha Romoff and Claury Scatliffe led the hits with three each with the latter also getting the most total bases with six. Romoff stole the most bases with three.
Pitcher Oona Ylinen started the final a few hours after starting the final round robin game and pitched three strong innings before handing over to Scatliffe who closed out the game.
Even though Great Britain entered the tournament as the underdogs – they had only participated once before in 2022 – the British women exceeded all expectations from day one when they beat two-time champions France 16 – 1.
Despite being unable to beat the home team Czechia on day two, GB held on firmly and gave everything they had on the last day.
“We did what we set out to do, and even though there were some close games, there was never any doubts in our dugout”said third baseman Katherine Golik.
It was a long day on Sunday (17 August) for Great Britain as their first game against the Netherlands started at 9:30 in the morning (8:30 BST).
Due to heavy rain on Saturday, the last two games of the round robin stage were moved to Sunday and the final was pushed back by several hours, making the game day last well into the evening.
In what was their only home game of the tournament, the British women got off to a rocky start against the Dutch side in the morning.
A couple of errors cost them dearly as the Dutch women showed off both strong hitting skills and a tight defence, with Great Britain behind 9 – 0 by the time they entered the bottom of the second inning.
But strong pitching displays from Emma McLean and Claury Scatliffe then paid off for Great Britain as they successfully kept the Netherlands from scoring again.
Combining patience at the plate and bold base running, GB managed to get back 10 runs and decided the game for themselves.
During the last game of the round robin stage, it was up to Czechia and France to battle it out. There was nothing the British women could do but wait and hope for either a Czech win or for the French to not beat their run difference of +13.
An 8 – 5 win for Czechia finally secured GB’s place in the top two and therefore in the final.
The final was a memorable game of baseball and produced a gold medal for GB.
Great Britain Women will now go on to the 2026 WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Group Stage as the third European team after France and the Netherlands.
“Every player, coach and staff members deserves the largest congratulations for this amazing achievement. said BBF President Richard Evans “Our baseball community has witnessed the effort and commitment they have shown over the past three years to get themselves ready to deliver in Czechia and deliver they did.”
It is GB’s second-ever European title with the U-23s having won the country’s first continental baseball trophy earlier this year.
Photos courtesy of WBSC Europe