The Netherlands are the defending champions, having defeated Italy 6-2 in last year’s U-18 European Championship in Macerata, Italy. Germany finished in third place after a 10-0 shutout over Spain in the bronze medal matchup.
For the first time 12 countries will be in the tournament. Two just qualified this summer, as Great Britain and Belgium won the U-18 European Baseball Championship Qualifiers in Sundbyberg, Sweden and Trnava, Slovakia in the early July to advance to the main tournament.
During the preliminary round the 12 teams are split into two groups of six each. In Group A (team by team preview) Austria, Spain, France, Great Britain, Lithuania and the Netherlands are slotted, in Group B (team by team preview) Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Ireland, Israel and Italy.
From Saturday to Thursday a preliminary round robin will be played with the top two teams of each group advancing to the semi-finals on Friday. The grand finale is set for Saturday at 6pm at MBS stadium in Brno.
All games will be streamed live. Links to the live streaming and live scoring can be found through www.wbsceurope.org.