For the 11th year in a row, the Softball club Princ was organizing a friendly international tournament called Forever Fastpitch. The tournament took place on softball fields on Jarun lake from Friday 06th of April until Sunday 8th of April.
The tournament was organized by volunteers and members of the club, from the youngest to the oldest. This year’s tournament took part in a record numbers of 9 teams from 6 different countries – Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Czech Republic and Sweden.
In three days, 25 games were played on two softball fields.
Spring and good weather means that the softball season has started. The Forever Fastpitch tournament was very well received by the teams and it came very well as spring preparations for to the upcoming season.
From 9 teams participating in the tournament, there were two junior teams, one from Hungary U22, and the other from Croatia. To them, this friendly tournament was significant for pre – season preparations for the European Championships in July 2018.
By playing the whole tournament without a single defeat, Storms from the Czech Republic justifiably earned the title of the tournament. However, our Princesses made that a bit difficult for them in the finals. In finals, against Princ (CRO), Czech team was loosing 2:1 since the first inning. In the tense final of the last inning, the Storms won with walk off and two outs.
With defeat in the finals, the Princesses took second place, and third place was won by the Italian team Ronchi Stars.
Final tournament ranking:
1. Storms (Czech Republic)
2. Princ (Croatia)
3. Ronchi Stars (Italy)
4. Lady Pirates (Croatia)
5. Leksand (Sweden)
6. Hungary U22 National team
7. Akademics (Bulgaria)
8. Atletics (Bulgaria)
9. Croatian U19 National team
In addition to nice weather and good softball, the tournament was a lot of fun and socializing of young people from a different nationalities. There were lot of good mood and the positive energy among the players.
Within the spirit of the tournament, 11th Forever Fastpitch tournament was part of the # April6 World Campaign.
#WhiteCard is recognized as a symbol of peace-through-sports expression, and since 2013 is recognized as a symbol of the International Day of Sports for Development and Peace at # April6. All the teams raised #WhiteCard.
Hoping for a successful season, we invite all teams to participate in our next tournament at the end of the season in October – Ball Game. http://www.europeansoftball.
