Linton´s no-hitter paces GB to win over Belgium

Great Britain´s Kyle Linton pitched a complete-game no-hitter as his team won 5-0 to stay perfect at the European Championship. He had to pitch the full seven innings because Belgium put up a good fight defensively, allowing only 5 runs on 8 hits.

A British win was probably expected by most people when they faced Belgium on Tuesday afternoon, but the game was notable for a couple of reasons. After losing 9-0 and 10-0 in their first two games, the Belgians shut out the Brits for the first three innings, and eventually kept the score to a respectable 5-0 against a team that is considered a definite medal contender. On the other side, British pitcher Kyle Linton struck out 17 of the 22 batters he faced and didn´t allow any hits, to record a no-hitter.

"It was his first time pitching for GB and that was a great no-hitter," said pleased coach Norm Ames afterward. "His speed was good, his movement was good on the ball and he did an awesome job."

Linton struck out all nine Belgian batters in order in the first three innings, but the game was still scoreless, as Britain was not able to score any runs against starter Jan Zelenka, who came back with a strong performance after struggling against the Czechs in his first appearance.

"I think the Belgians did a great job of keeping us close and it took our guys a few innings to adjust to the speed (of Zelenka)," Ames continued.

The Brits finally broke through in the top of the fourth, which Ryan Martin led off with a double down the left-field line. With the bases loaded and one out, Ben Easdown singled between the shortstop and third baseman to score 2 runs. They then added 3 more runs in the fifth -- with two on and one out, Zelenka was lifted in favour of Kristof van Aarsen, who unleashed 2 wild pitches to score 2, then a passed ball brought home the final run of the game.

"We gave a chance to another pitcher because we wanted to give some rest for our first pitcher Zelenka. I am pretty okay with this game." said Belgian coach Stefan Thilemans, but admitted: "This game was all about the British pitcher. We couldn´t hit anything. The guys tried to get back into the game but without success."

The Belgians got their only baserunner of the game in the bottom half of the fifth, when Jeroen van Nuffel drew a one-out walk, then advanced to second on a passed ball, where he was stranded. After that, it was just up to Linton to finish it off. He struck out the first two batters of the seventh inning, his 16th and 17th "K"s of the game, before van Aarssen finished the game by popping up to first baseman Morgan Ottridge. The entire team then mobbed the pitcher for his accomplishment.

"I tried to keep it out of my mind but I started thinking about it in the sixth inning," said Linton, giving a lot of credit to his teammates for supporting him defensively. "The guys really rallied behind me whenever there was anything hit out there."