Last weekend 29th of April a�� 1st of May, in Zagreb, 9th forEver Fastpitch took place. Six teams played from four countries, Angels and Athletics from Bulgaria, Barracudas from Denmark, Slovenian National Team and Croatian Junior National team with the host Princ Zagreb.
The tournament began on Friday afternoon with Dupnitsa Angels defeating Croatian JNT by 8:0. Next game was a close one, only one run was scored, home team Princ Zagreb won against Barracudas. Last Game of the first day had Sofia Athletics facing Princ Zagreb, score was 4:19.
On Saturday morning, games started at 9 AM, and went on all the way until 19h. We had a long day of beautiful weather and great games. Slovenia defeated Angels 13:3, Barracudas overcame Athletics 10:1 and Croatian Juniors lost to Slovenia 0:11 to close the first round of the tournament.
Second round, continued in the afternoon. Princ faced Slovenia and won 5:1; Athletics lost to Croatian Juniors 5:9; Barracudas vs Slovenia 4:6 ; Croatian Juniors lost 3:7 against Angels, who later defeated Athletics 8:4. For the end of the day, games where played among first and second ranked teams: Princ against Slovenia, result was 9:4, and host team was directly in the finals.
On Sunday, the weather would not cooperate with us like it did the rest of the weekend, but it was not gonna stop the tournament from going on. Barracudas lost to Angels 3:16 and took 4th place. Slovenia had another shot for finals but could not defeat Angels. Games had to be moved to B field due to heavy rain. Croatian Juniors lost a close game against Athletics 9:12 (Last play was tag-out at home plate with 2 runners on bases).
After a short break to get the field ready, the final game between Zagreba��s Princ and Dupnitsa Angels begun.
Angels managed to score 2 runs in the first inning with 2 runners on before princ could make the 3rd out, but that was it. Zagreba��s pitcher Ema wouldna��t allow any more runs and neither did her reliever Michaela. In the meantime, Princ showed their offense scoring 9 runs in 5 innings, including Katarina Prskalo walk-off RBI single to put an early end to the game due to mercy rule.
Final ranking of the 9th ForEVER Fastpitch tournament:
1st place a�� Princ Zagreb
2nd place a�� Angels Dupnitsa
3rd place a�� Slovenia NT
4th place a�� Barracudas Danmark
5th place a�� Athletics Sofia
6th place a�� Croatia Junior National TeamFinal speech and closure of the tournament was given to a�� Ami Baran (ESF Secretary general), Mette Nissen (ESF Vice President) and Henrietta Gilhoj (President of Denmark Softball Federation).
We would like to thank everyone for their support of this event: umpires, photographers, volunteers (parents, kids, boys) and sponsors (Dukat, Fridrih, Atlantic Trade), and of course the fans and viewers.
A fun softball-filled weekend, but there will be another tournament in October.