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U-23 Men’s Softball European Championship 2022 - Official Payoff

U-23 Baseball World Cup: Netherlands claim 8th, Germany 11th in Final Standings

U-23 Baseball World Cup: Netherlands claim 8th, Germany 11th in Final Standings
23/10/2022
While Japan won the 2022 WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup, which was held in the cities of Taipei, Taichung and Douliu, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Germany represented European Baseball well and finished in eighth respective eleventh in the final standings.

Reigning U-23 European champion Netherlands barely missed out on qualifying for the super round robin of the top six. With two wins over Cuba (3-2) and Puerto Rico (4-1) alongside three losses to Korea (0-4), Mexico (0-4) and Australia (4-5), the Dutch were locked into a crazy five-way tie together with Australia, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico. In the end the team quality balance favored Australia and Mexico with the Netherlands needing to settle for the classification round.

U-23 European vice champion Germany participated in the U-23 Baseball World Cup for a second year in a row. They showed strong improvement from the pitching side of the game, but had to settle for a 1-4 record during the preliminary round. Facing world number one and two in the first two games with Japan (0-6) and Chinese Taipei (0-3), the team held their ground, but fell twice. A convincing 10-0 shutout over South Africa brought them back into the mix, before losing 3-7 to defending world champion Venezuela and 0-7 to last year’s bronze medalist Colombia.

The Netherlands entered the classification round with a 2-0 record with a prime chance to finish in seventh place. But in the opening matchup of the second round Venezuela prevailed 3-0 over the Dutch to win a key matchup for seventh. Afterwards the Netherlands routed South Africa 17-3 and won the rematch of last year’s final at the European Championship 3-0 against Germany. Germany meanwhile smelled an upset in each of the first two classification round games against Cuba and Puerto Rico. But after leading 2-0 and 1-0, the baseball heavyweights eventually prevailed 3-2 and 3-1.

The Netherlands finished with four wins and four losses in eighth place in the final standings. Germany repeated its finish from 2021 with a eleventh place. Japan won the tournament ahead of Korea, Chinese Taipei and Mexico.

All information about the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup can be found at www.wbsc.org.

Photo by WBSC