France, which had been relegated at the 2021 European Baseball Championship in Italy, dominated the Qualifier by remaining undefeated in four games. After a 3-0 preliminary round they went on to defeat Bulgaria 8-1 in the final. Three runs in the first gave France a quick lead. After Bulgaria got on the board in the fifth, they added five more runs to seal the win. Jose Paula went deep and drove in two runs. Leo Jiminian and Mael Zan scored two runs apiece. Bastien Dagneau reached base four times and drove in two. Mathias Lacombe struck out six in three strong innings of one-hit relief. Evgenii Chernozemsky took the loss for Bulgaria. Petyo Petko scored the lone run for the hosts.

Slovenia and Ireland finished in third and fourth in the final standings of the European Baseball Championship Qualifier in Blagoevgrad.

All results and statistics can be found at www.wbsceurope.org.

Photo by Glenn Gervot