Georgians’ energy makes tournament a success

When the Republic of Georgia team took to the field in the Little League Softball Senior Regional Tournament July 20 at Ramstein High School, they were a little overwhelmed.

Facing the German region team made up of American girls stationed throughout Germany, they dropped the first two games 16-0 and 24-1.

Their coaches, Nino Abuseridze and Natia Eliashvili, didn’t sugarcoat the situation.

“We told them what they did wrong and what they needed to do to improve. We didn’t say, ‘That’s OK, we’ll win the next one,’” Abuseridze said through a translator. “We told them not to concentrate on the score, but to play the game correctly. They had to abandon the very competitive Georgian mentality.”

The team went on to lose the remaining two games in the best-of-seven series, but showed improvement with each passing inning. They lost the final contest 12-2 on July 22, but held the Americans scoreless in several innings – a first for them in the tournament.

While the Americans will be going on to the senior Softball World Series in Delaware next month, the Georgians will be returning to their capital of Tbilisi with some prized experience, Eliashvili said.

“If only we could play against teams of this caliber more often,” she said. “The competition in Georgia isn’t this strong, so this is a chance for us to learn and get better playing against tougher competition.”

Improving the level of play has been the aim ever since she assembled the team in 2004, she said.

Eliashvili and her co-manager Abuseridze, like their players, are very enthusiastic about the game of softball and growing the sport in their country.

Both were players in the early days of Georgian softball after the game was introduced along with baseball in the late 1980s. They both recruited players from Tbilisi schools as they built separate teams in 2004 and later combined their squads to create a Georgian team. The 15- and 16-year-old players represent the future of Georgian softball.

“Softball is an Olympic sport now, and these girls will be old enough to participate when the next Olympics takes place,” Abuseridze said.

For now, the potential prodigies are sleeping in the Ramstein High School gymnasium (along with the other visiting teams from Holland and Italy) and spending their days focused on nothing but the game. In addition to tournament play, their coaches scheduled a series of friendly games to continue to hone the players’ skills.

After losing the final game to the Americans at 10 a.m., they returned to the field at 7 p.m. for a game against the Dutch. 

“Softball goes well with the Georgian character,” said Eliashvili, a converted handball player who began in 1996. “It’s a team sport but every player must be responsible as an individual and perform. It is emotional, risk-taking, and gives us an outlet for demonstrating our emotions; we like to be loud.”

The players were very happy to get a chance to play against foreign competition and learn new techniques. The tournament added to previous tournament experiences in Poland and the Ukraine.

Second baseman Zhuzha Khurtsidze said it was nice to play against experienced players and to see how they approached the game.

“I learned a lot and experienced playing with strong players and learned more about how to play my positions,” Khurtsidze said.

Pitcher and third baseman Nato Bitarishvili said she learned more about how to pitch.

“I now know how to throw several different pitches, including a drop ball and a rise ball,” she said.

After the final game, the German region team invited their Georgian opponents for pizza. Manager Captain Randy Pletzer said they appreciated the Georgian team coming to the tournament.

“We definitely enjoyed having them here. They appear to be a young team, still learning and still growing, but further down the road, they’ll be ready to go,” Pletzer said.

German (American) pitcher and shortstop Lindsey Jones said it reinforced the importance of respecting opposing teams and that she was grateful from a cultural perspective. 

“While we have to play up to our abilities, we also have to be respectful of our opponents,” Jones said. “It was good for us to be able to play against them. This is the cultural advantage we have playing over here, to get to play against teams that don’t even speak the same language.”

In the same spirit, the Georgian coaches are hoping to offer some international hospitality to teams attending their October tournament in Tbilisi.

“We want to show them our hospitality, but we also want to show them we can play some good softball,” Abuseridze said.