Semi-Final: Netherlands – Czechia 13-9 (Box score)
On Friday
afternoon the Netherlands defeated Czechia 13-9 in the first semi-final at the
U-15 Baseball European Championship, denying the defending title holder another
gold medal. After Czechia scored five in the top of the second inning, the Dutch
team answered with a massive rally in the bottom half. Twelve runs turned the
game around and gave them a decisive advantage en route to the victory. Five
Dutch players scored two runs apiece. Guus Toemen, Jonas Rijpma and Djevan
Jansen collected two RBI each. Lukas Chromy had a home run and three RBI for
Czechia.
Semi-Final: Italy – France 10-9 (Box score)
In the second
semi-final on Friday evening Italy scored ten runs in the first three innings
for an early 10-3 lead and seemingly en route to an easy win. But France scored
six combined runs in the fifth and sixth to make things interesting and reduce
the deficit to a single run. But three strikeouts and a groundout got Italy the
last four outs and sealed the 10-9 win. Lorenzo Maiorelli had three hits, three
runs and four RBI for Italy. Lilian Bidaut and Baptiste Volpato had two RBI
each.
Classification Round: Slovakia – Hungary 4-8 (Box score)
In the classification
round Hungary defeated Slovakia 8-4 on Friday morning. Both teams combined to
score in five of the first six half innings with Hungary leading 6-4. They
added two more runs in the sixth to secure the victory. Bruno Vasadi went
3-for-4 with four RBI for Hungary. Lukas Brhlovic had three RBI for Slovakia.
Outlook
On Saturday the U-15 Baseball European Championship in Trnava ends with the medal games. The Gold Medal Game is scheduled for 17:00. The Netherlands and Italy are the record title holders in European baseball in that age category with 12 respective 11 wins. The Dutch team last won the U-15 Baseball European Championship in 2014 in Germany, Italy lastly came out on top in 2011 in the Czech Republic. Prior to the final Slovakia and Germany will meet at 10:00 in the last game of the classification round. In the afternoon at 13:30 France and Czechia will battle for the bronze medal in the game of third place.
All games of the U-15 Baseball European Championship in Trnava will be streamed live through the WBSC Europe YouTube Channel. Live play by play will be available for all games at www.wbsceurope.org.
Photo by Branislav Hantak
