Austria went into their first A-Pool game since 2007 as the underdog against a strong Belgian Team, who finished 6th at the last European Championship. Although they could start off the game with a single, not much pressure was put onto the Belgian defense behind Cedric Desmedt. His offense helped him out when Axel Poesmans drove the ball over the outfield fence to take the 2:0 lead. Veteran Christian Tomsich recovered from this little mistake and kept the opposing hitters in chess. The Austrian batters on the other side never really found into the game and couldn’t use the few chances the Belgian gave to them.
Also Austria’s bullpen didn’t quite perform the way they wanted. In the 8th the Red Hawks added three more to the scoreboard as an insurance. After Kenny van de Branden gave up Austria’s first run and loaded up the bases, Thomas De Wolf shut the door to earn the save. Final score: 5:1
BEL: Cedric Desment; 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 K; Axel Poesmans: 1 for 3, HR, 2 RBI
AUT: Christian Tomsich, 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 5 K; Dominik Talir: 2 for 4, 2B, RBI