Holland, the 2013 European Champions

In Prague the 2013 European Championship came to an end on Saturday as Lindsey Meadows lead the Holland club to their 3^rd consecutive title and 9^th since the tournament began back in 1979. Her five hit shutout along with some strong ‘D’ and timely hitting was the difference in what team hoisted the cup at the end. Now the Italian club will have to wait another two years to try to regain the advantage in the number of overall European titles (both counties now sit at 9 apiece).

Marina Centrone’s club took the field to take on an impressive Holland club on Saturday evening in the European Championship Finals in Prague. It was her clubs second game of the day, as they had to take on the Czech Republic in game one, where they came out on top 10-1, and earned the right to play for the cup. This finals contest was a matchup that had been seen may times before, in fact these two clubs are the only teams that have ever won the tournament since it began back in 1979, and it was the 9^th overall time that they faced off head to head for the EU cup.

The game started off somewhat slow for both clubs in the 1^st inning. Italy was able to come up with one hit off of Meadows when Bosdachin singled through the right side with one out, but ended up stranded on first at innings end. In the bottom of the 2^nd the Netherlands struck the scoreboard first after Kosterink tripled down the right field line leading off the inning, and later scored when the very next batter, Anneveld, reached on an error making the game 1-0. In the 3^rd and 4^th Italy was able to get runners on (2 in the 3^rd and 1 in the 4^th), but they able to get a runner past second base thanks to some fundamentally sound defenses by the Netherlands.

In the bottom of the 4^th Holland was able to put some more distance between themselves and the Italians on the scoreboard as they pushed another two runs across without having to even record a single hit.. two runs on three walks and an error. A walk to Kosterink to lead off the inning who later stole second and third. A one out walk to Oosting who then took second, putting runners at second and third. The very next hitter, Oosterveld then grounded out to short, which pushed Kosterink across for the innings first run, while Oosting was able to advance to third, and later crossed the plate as an unearned run when Bosdachin booted the ball at second. The story of the game pretty much ended at this point, as the Italians were unable to get anything going on the offensive side of the ball. Although Italy out hit the Netherlands 5 to 3, they were unable to come up with that timely hit to give themselves a chance for the victory. The final result in this successfully organized event is Holland’s 3^rd consecutive EU title and 9^th overall, tying the Italians mark for overall championship. We’ll now have to wait at least two more years to which one of these two clubs hits the 10 mark first.