Three of the four scheduled games on Friday at the Super 6 Softball tournament in Hoofddorp, Netherlands were concluded. The fourth matchup between the Netherlands and Czech Republic got suspended in the second inning due to the weather conditions and will resumed on Saturday morning at 10.30am.
Afterwards the classification games will follow. Russia and Greece will play for fifth place. Great Britain is going to participate in the game for third place. The other three spots are still open, pending the result between the undefeated Czech team and the 3-1 Dutch.
On Friday the Netherlands beat Greece in the morning. Afterwards Great Britain prevailed over Russia and Italy downed Greece.
Greece 400 0 4 10 3 Netherlands 270 5 14 17 1
The first game on Friday started off with a scare for host Netherlands, as Greece put up four runs in the top of the first. But the Dutch team recovered and took the lead for good with seven runs in the second en route to a 14-4 blowout. Nine different players scored for the Netherlands, five multiple times. Marjolein Merkx picked up the win in relief. Chelsea Runyon got charged with the loss.
Great Britain 000 200 03 5 9 1 Russia 200 000 01 3 9 3
In a close game Great Britain defeated Russia 5-3 in eight innings. Russia struck first and took a 2-0 lead in the first. The British team answered with two runs in the fourth. The game was still tied after seven innings, leading to the tiebreakers in the eighth. GB scored three runs in the top of the eighth to seal the win. Emmilee Blowers collected three hits and two RBI. Hannah Edwards pitched eight innings for the win. Yulia Maslova struck out nine, but took the loss, also after a complete game.
Italy 120 60 9 8 1 Greece 100 00 1 3 1
Amanda Fama and Giulia Longhi hit inside the park home runs – the second a grand slam as part of a six-run rally – and Italy won 9-1 against Greece in five innings in the late afternoon game on Friday. Laura Bigatton pitched the whole five innings, conceding three hits, a run and two walks for the win. Efthimia Marinakis took the loss.
On Saturday the Super 6 Softball tournament ends with the continuation of the Netherlands-Czech Republic game and the three classification games. The final is set for 6pm. Live play by play is available through competition.europeansoftball.org. Livestreams of all games are offered at www.baseballsoftball.tv.