European matchups are highly revealing of the national level. Two of our top women’s softball clubs have just spent a week each in different categories of the European Cup. These were Grenoble’s Grizzlys and Évry Courcouronnes’ Pharaonnes.
For the Grenoble side, this marked a first, having never reached this level of competition before. One win and four losses, but a real determination to give it their all again. Let’s hear from Clélia Costes, pitcher for the Grizzlys:
From August 21st to 26th, my team, Grenoble’s Grizzlys, competed in the European Cup held in Caronno, Italy. It was a first for our collective and our club. We started with warm-up matches against the Italian A2 team, Avigliana’s Rebels. This helped us get into the right mindset for the competition week. The level was high, as we expected. We went in with nothing to lose, ready to give it our all, no matter the opponent. And that’s exactly what we did—we fought with everything we had in every match.
Throughout the week, as the matches went on, we continued to build and strengthen our team spirit, both on and off the field. We even managed to secure a win, which was one of our ambitious goals for the competition. Personally, I kept learning throughout the tournament, both from the matches I played and by watching players from other teams. I think this cup was a great collective experience and a solid preparation for the rest of our D1 season and the French championship final we’ll be playing. I’m proud of my team despite the losses, and I’m glad to have shared this first European Cup with this collective.
On the Évry side, the adventure was also filled with areas for improvement that became clearer with each match. The European Cup is called the Premier Cup. They played five times and lost all their matches, sometimes in close contests or with a noticeable gap in level that helped them progress.
Here are the club’s impressions: A first for our club to compete in this prestigious Women’s Softball Premier Cup, bringing together the 10 best European clubs. This year, we chose to play this competition with our strengths, giving our Pharaonnes athletes as much experience and playing time as possible, with reinforcements from Youna PEAN (Saint-Raphaël), Esmée TOET (Neptunus, Netherlands), and Ariane CAPOGRECO (Quebec, Canada), who contributed a lot. Beyond the young age of our team, we struggled to maintain consistency in aligning our strengths and showcasing our best level, which led to our last-place finish in the standings. We’ll remember the two beautiful matches against Bonn Capitals (3rd) and Inox Saronno (2nd), the encounters with remarkable international athletes, and we thank the supporters who were there all week. We’re proud of the experience our athletes, staff, and club gain each year. This level of softball is what we’d like to experience every day—it motivates us to work even harder, especially since we’ll have another 5th Cup to play in 2024! We stay focused and are very motivated for the rest of the national championship, which resumes this Sunday, September 3rd.
