Women’s Softball European Championship: Only four nations remain in hunt for European title

BOLLATE, Italy – There are 23 teams at the Women’s Softball European Championship and all of them are fighting for their best possible position. But only four nations still remain in the hunt for the coveted title of European Champion.

TOP EIGHT

Tuesday and Wednesday games determined the top eight teams of the tournament: Italy, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Russia, Spain, Greece, and Sweden.

While the first five mentioned teams made their way to the top eight without any significant complications, the remaining national selections had to go through some extra innings for their chance at play-off attendance.

Spain played a nine-inning game against France. French players found themselves unlucky once again; in 2015 they lost the same game in ten innings. Spain wins 2-1.

Sweden started their important game against Austria by scoring four runs, but Austria did not give up until the very end of the game. In the sixth inning, Austria fought back and cut the Swedish lead to a single run. But luckily for Sweden, that was it. Sweden wins 5-3.

When Greece won their first game at this tournament, it was an upset against Germany. But Greece kept on winning. When they lost to Italy only 0-2, everyone knew, that they had to take the Greek team seriously.

TOP SIX

Wednesday brought another evening storm and eight games had to be rescheduled for Thursday.

The organizer in Bollate set up one more field and the teams had to get ready to play possibly three games a day.

Russia and the Czech Republic were supposed to finish the last two innings of their rescheduled game from Wednesday evening, but it took them three extra-innings to end the game. The Czechs scored their winning run on a base on balls. Czech Republic wins 2-1.

After Greece defeated Sweden, they tried to make their way to the top six by beating Russia. They were successful with a 4-2 victory.

Russia – fresh off their loss from Greece – had to get ready quickly to play another game against Great Britain. A win would have advanced them but over five hours straight on the field was too much. The British were stronger in the second clash of the two teams in the Championship and they left Russia behind, 10-4.

With round-robin win/loss records advancing them to the top four, the Netherlands and Italy chose to not play their rain-delayed game as the game was only to determine the home/visitor teams for the next-day game. Instead a coin flip solved the situation.

TOP FOUR

After Thursday’s schedule, only four nations remain in medal contention – the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, the Czech Republic.

The Netherlands will take on Greece, Great Britain will play the Czech Republic, and the top-six group will be closed by the game between Italy and Russia.

Helpful Links

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Full Game Schedule (pdf)
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