Sweden wins U-18 Baseball European Championship Qualifier in Zurich, Switzerland

It was a short final of the U-18 Baseball European Championship Qualifier in Zurich, Switzerland on Saturday. Sweden scored in each of the four innings played en route to an 18-0 shutout over Lithuania to win the tournament. Eight runs in the second blew the score wide open quickly.

Catcher James Dellamico led the Swedish offense with two hits, two runs and five RBI. Leadoff Karl Eidem scored four runs. Victor Wahlberg and Alex Börjes scored three runs each. On the mound Linus Ritzen struck out eight in four innings, allowing just two hits and two walks. Domas Pauliukevicius had both hits for Lithuania. Dovydas Raciunas issued two hits and three runs (1 ER) in an inning of work to take the loss.

Lithuania and Sweden went 3-1 during the preliminary round with Lithuania winning the group match against each other by a score of 7-6 on Friday to earn home field advantage in the final. Hungary, Ukraine and host Switzerland finished in third, fourth and fifth.

The second pool of the U-18 Baseball European Championship Qualifiers will be played in Ashbourne, Ireland from July 27 to 30.

All results and statistics can be found at www.wbsceurope.org.
All photos from the tournament can be found on the WBSC Europe Flickr Profile.

Also all games are being live streamed through the WBSC Europe YouTube Channel.

Photo by Bernhard Eigenheer