PRAGUE, Czech Republic – The University of Louisville’s Alicja Wolny was recently selected to the Great Britain national team in the European Championships. The graduating senior first baseman helped lead Great Britain to a 6-2 record, and a fifth place finish in the tournament – narrowly missing a berth in the 2014 World Championship.
Through eight games of pool play and playoffs, Wolny registered a .529 batting average with 11 RBIs and nine runs and drew five walks.
Pool Play
Wolny got her first international start at first base as Great Britain opened World Tournament play with a 4-2 win over Germany. With a tough first win under their belt, Great Britain rolled to a 20-1 victory over Denmark. Wolny demonstrated the offensive skills that made her a 2013 NFCA All-America selection by driving in four runs and scoring three.
The following day, Wolny went 1 for 1 with two walks and two runs as Great Britain tallied another run-rule win with a 15-0 decision against Israel.
In their final game of pool play, Great Britain and Russia faced off in an epic softball battle. Britain took a 1-0 lead and Wolny connected on a three-run homer to make the score 4-0 in the first inning. Russia worked to tie the game at 4-4 in the fourth before Wolny struck again with an RBI single to pull her team ahead 5-4.
Russia eventually went on to win the game 8-7 despite Wolny’s 3 for 4, four RBI performance at the plate.
Great Britain finished pool play with a 3-1 record and proceeded to a three-game playoff – needing to win only two to qualify for the World Championships. Upon the completion of pool play, Wolny stood among the tournament’s offensive leaders. Her eight RBIs and 1.000 slugging percentage placed her second. She was seventh in batting average (.556) and eighth in on-base percentage (.636).
The Playoffs
In the first game of the playoffs, Great Britain stumbled with a 7-0 loss to Italy. They rebounded to beat Spain 8-0 with Wolny going 1 for 1 with a run and two RBIs.
The final playoff game was not only a must-win for Great Britain, but because they were locked in a three-way tie with Italy and the Czech Republic, they needed to beat the Czech Republic by four runs to win the tiebreaker and secure a spot in the 2014 World Championship.
After falling behind 3-2 through five innings of play, Great Britain responded with four runs in the sixth. Wolny got the rally started with a leadoff single and came around to score the tying run. Great Britain would go on to win 5-3, but fell out of contention for a World Championship berth.
In their final game of the tournament, Great Britain defeated Austria 5-1 to claim fifth place in the European Championships.
Courtesy of Lori Korte – Assistant Sports Information Director Louisville
