Nikola Skardova's shutout leads Czechia past Great Britain

Czechia's WBSC U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup Group A Play-Offs game with Great Britain saw a complete game shutout by Nikola Skardova, leading to a 2-0 victory and advancing them to the Repechage game at Estádio Municipal de Beisebol Mie Nishi in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Saturday.

It was an intense pitching duel between the European rivals, with Elena Clark-Wilson tossing six innings, giving up two runs on eight hits with four strikeouts.

Czechia loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning but could not complete a run. Elena Clark-Wilson retired the next three batters with two grounders and a clutch strikeout to hang the zero. Great Britain and Czechia remained tied at 0-0.

Once again, Elena Clark-Wilson escaped the jam unscathed in the fourth inning. Czechia's Sara Rolfesova and Denisa Sustrova started the inning with back-to-back singles and advanced on a sac bunt. However, Clark-Wilson struck out Sara Von Tsurikov and Karolina Berankova to avoid damage, remaining scoreless in the game.

Czechia took the lead in the fifth inning when Amalie Kalcevova was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a sac bunt. With one out, Kristyna El Ghannam hit an RBI single up the middle to give Czechia and then Lucie Cervenkova added an inside-the-park home run, providing the two clutch hits for Czechia, who collected eight hits in the game.