France won the inaugural U-17 Baseball5 European Championship
France defeated Türkiye in the gold medal game at the U-17 Baseball5 European Championship. Being the top two finishers, France and Türkiye qualified for the 2023 WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup. Lithuania won the Bronze medal.
In the first game of the championship series, France scored three runs in the third inning. Türkiye reacted by scoring two, not enough to get on top and the first game went to France.
In game two, France scored three runs in the first inning. Türkiye scored one to stay in the game until France scored five more to take the second game with the result of 8-1 and win the first-ever U-17 Baseball5 European Championship.
In the bronze medal series, Lithuania topped Czech Republic to win the Bronze medal. Game one of the series was very balanced. Czechia took the win in game one defeating Lithuania 9 to 8. Lithuania then won the second game only allowing 2 runs and scoring 6.
In the decisive game, Czech Republic took the lead with one run. Lithuania reacted by scoring two runs in the second inning and three more in the fourth to win the game with the result of 1-5 and take home the bronze medal.
Due to a prolonged power outage in the venue's hall, all series scheduled for the final day was taken from a best-of-five series to a best-of-three series.
Earlier in the day, Romania topped Italy (2-0) to take the fifth position; in the fight for the seventh spot, Belgium defeated the Kingdom of the Netherlands (2-0).
Greece lost to Germany (1-2) in the series defining the ninth position, while Bulgaria won against Latvia (2-0) to end the tournament in the eleventh position. Moldova took down Israel (2-1) to rank thirteenth.
Final standings:
1: France
2: Türkiye
3: Lithuania
4: Czech Republic
5: Romania
6: Italy
7: Belgium
8: Netherlands
9: Germany
10: Greece
11: Bulgaria
12: Latvia
13: Moldova
14: Israel
