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In front of a crowd of close to 2.000 the Czech Republic beat the German hosts with 4:3 to secure fifth place in the European Baseball Championship 2019. The final out in the ninth Inning silenced the crowd after Germany had the bases loaded with zero outs just moments before.

Team Germany had taken the lead in the second Inning with an RBI-Double from Marco Cardoso, who scored the second run shortly after on a bunt by Philipp Schulz. Martin Cervenka put the Czech Team in front with his 3-Run-home run in the third inning. Cardoso’s second run on a sac-fly by Kevin Kotowski in the sixth tied up the game again. The final blow for the German hopes for fifth place came in the eighth on Martin Schneiders solo home run for the second Czech lead of the game. German Reliever Niklas Rimmel was tagged with the loss and Jan Novak was awarded the win for his three Innings of relief.

The win not only means 5th place in the tournament, but also a spot in die European-African-Olympic Qualifier in Parma and Bologna at the end of this month. The winner will earn a place in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, while the runner-up gets another chance in the world-qualifier.

The British team beats Team Austria after a five-run seventh to secure the ninth place in this years European Championship. 

Both teams seemed to be highly motivated to finish the tournament with a win showing their offensive strength in the first inning. Great Britain managed to score four runs on four hits, but Team Austria immediately answered by puuting six runs on the scoreboard. In the third and fourth inning they even increased their lead on one more run per inning. But the British team didn´t give up and scored two runs in the fifth coming back to within two runs. It was the seventh inning when they managed to turn the game around, after five runs it was eleven to eight for Great Britain. Austrias comeback attempts came up short, they didn´t mnage to score more than one run in the ninth and Great Britain wo the game by a final score of eleven to nine. 

The British starter threw only 2.1 innings allowing seven runs, relievers Cody Chartrand and Daniel Cooper both allowed only one to earn the Win (Chartrand) and Save (Cooper). In the British offense Jordan Serena stood out with a Home Run, Alex Crosby and Richard Brereton both recorded two Hits. For Team Austria starter Ryan Rupp allowed five runs over 4.2 innings of work, the three Austrian relievers gave up six more, but only two of them were earned. The Austrian offense outhit Great Britain recording five more hits, Samuel Hackl stood out with three.

After the British win they finish the tournament in ninth place, the Austrian team finishes tenth.

A Grand Slam-Homerun by Dutch Rightfielder Kalian Sams and a Solo-Shot by John Pollonius broke open a close game in the fifth Inning and gave the Netherlans a 5-1 win over arch rival Italy to secure their 23^rd European Baseball Championship at the 2019 edition played in Bonn and Cologne. More than 2.000 spectators at Rheinaue Stadium witnessed the final game of the tournament, which produced the usual suspects as finalists.

Both Starters, Hollands Donny Breek and Italys Luis Lugo held the Opposition hitless for three Innings, as one would have aspected of the two active Minor League-Pitchers. The Streak ended for Lugo, when the Netherlands took advantage of an Italian Error and a Wild Pitch to loaded the bases for Sams. The five-run-lead in the final was huge, because it ended Lugos day of work prematurely. Matteo Bocchi had to came in to stop the Dutch momentum. 

But Italy had made a name for itself at these Championships being the „Comeback-Kids“.They came back to rallye after trailing against Germany in the Quarterfinals as well as Israel in the Semis. And sure enough, Alberto Mineo homered for Italy to cut the lead to 1-5 in the bottom of the fifth Inning. But Durch reliever Tom Stuifbergen ended Italys hoped of getting more runs back quickly. 

Italy threatened again in the 8^th, and managed to load the bases against Pitcher Mike Bolsenbroek. In came Kevin Kelly to defuse the tight situation and preserve Hollands lead. There was no denying the defending Champs now. Closer Juan Sulbaran was given the honours by Headcoach Evert t'Hoen to end the game just as he did against Spain the day before. Andre Maggis Groundball in the bottom of the Ninth forced out Erick Epifano at Second Base to close the deal for the Netherlands, who won the title for the third time in a row.

Breek was credited with the win (4.2 IP, 1 Hit, 1 R, 4 Ks), Lugo (4.0 IP, 2 H, 5 R, 6 Ks) took the loss for Italy. Both teams had six hits at the end, the Netherlands chose to make them count a lot more than their Italian Counterparts did, though.

Individual Awards:

Italys Sebastiano Poma won the Batting title with an Average of .533. Israels Pitcher Joey Wagman took the ERA-Crown (0.00).  Dutch Hurler Orlando Yntema won the most games in the tournament (2-0). RBI- and Homerun-King Honours went to Ademar Rifaela from the Netherlands (13 and 6). Austrias Ferdinand Obed scored the most Runs (22) in the Tournament. „Outstanding Defensive Player“ went to Germans Shortstop Alexander Schmitt. The Most Valuable Player-Trophy was awarded to – who else – Dutch Slugger Ademar Rifaela.

Team Spain won the most spectacular game of this European Championship over Israel to secure the third place in this years tournament.

Both teams offenses got off to a great start showing they were going to dominate the third-place game. In the top of the first the Israelian team managed to take a four-run lead after two walks, a single and a Home Run. Team Spain answered immediately putting their first run on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the inning. Israel didn´t stop and scored another run to increase the lead back to four, but Spain tied the game in the Bottom of the second on two Two-Run Home Runs. The Israelian team didn´t score in the third so Spain took their chance and put up four more runs giving them a nine to five lead. The batsmen of both teams didn´t slow down and both teams scored three more runs in the fourth inning. In the innings five to seven Israel scored one more run per inning, but it wasn´t enough as Team Spain scored a run in the sixth and another three in the seveth. In the last two innings both teams didn´t manage to score any runs for the first time in the game so Spain secured the third place in the tournament.  

The Israelian starter Alon Leichman threw 3.2 innings giving up twelve runs, the Israelian offense hit five Home Runs, they came from Blake Gaillenn, Danny Valencia, Rob Paller, Benjamin Wagner and Jeremy Wolf. The Spanish starter Jorge Balboa threw only an inning giving up five. For the Spanish offense Engel Beltre, Oscar Angulo, Jesus Ustariz and Jesus Martinez each hit Home Runs

Just 13 hours after their tough Quarterfinal loss to Italy, Germany came out clicking on all cylinders. Backed by a strong Offense that shelled out 18 Hits, the Hosts beat France 14-4 in the first classification game on Saturday morning. Nine Hits in the second Inning, capped by two Homeruns from Donald Lutz and Marco Cardoso gave Germany an early 9-0 lead. France got three runs back in the same frame but could not stop the german Runners from scoring. Neither Starting Pitcher Leonel Cespedes (1.2 IP, 7 Hits, 7 ER) nor the french Relievers were able to control the german attack. Deutschland-Starter Enorbel Marquez (5.0 IP, 6 Hits, 4 ER) kept his poise on the mound giving up only so many runs to secure the win. Daniel Thieben pitched two Innings of scoreless relief. Alex Schmidt and Donald Lutz each had 4 Hits for Germany, Lutz and Gühring also contributed 4 RBIs to the convincing win. The Germans will face the Czech Republic on Sunday morning at 11:00 in the deciding game for 5^th place and the opportunity to participate in the olympic qualification tournament starting next week in Bologna. 

The Czech team decided a close game to their advantage, beating Belgium by just a single run that they managed to score in the eighth inning. They now play Germany in the fight for 5th place (Sunday, 11:00).

It was just the second inning at the Ballpark Rheinaue when the Czech team took the lead on a Home Run by Petr Cech, putting them up one to zero. One inning later they added on, scoring three runs off of four hits and expanding their lead to four to zero. In the fourth Inning the Belgian offense first capitalized, scoring two on a Home Run by Sam Boermans and an RBI double. In just the next inning they even tied the game at four runs a side. It took until the eighth inning for a decision, but Martin Muzik hit a Home Run to give the Czech Republic the lead, Closer Daniel Padysak earned the save in the ninth.

The Czech starter Boris Bokaj threw 4.2 innings allowing four runs, but only two of them were earned. Four Czech relievers combined to shut the door, allowing no more runs. Offensively both Petr Cech and Martin Muzik showed up with their Home Runs. The Belgian starter Cedric Desmedt threw seven innings allowing four Runs to score, for the Belgian offense each Benjamin Dille, Sam Boermans and Benjamin Goffaux recorded two hits.

On day 2 of the classification games Team Great Britain scores early with motivated offense. Will Savage hits a lead-off-double off the croatian starter Jose Diaz and the team from the islands scores 2 runs by smart baserunning. In the 2nd inning they can add another run by situational hitting.  The croatian team answers with a run in the 2nd inning, but this should be their only run of the day, allowed by british starter Spencer Kreisberg.

After 4 innings Michael Roth takes the mound and allows only 2 basehits but no further runs. The british team scores again in the 4th and 7th inning. In the 8th inning relief pitcher Pavao Karin will take the mound for Croatia. He does not allow any more runs but the damage is done and Team Croatia can not turn the game around. The croatian bats remain silent and the team of headcoach James Summers has to take a 1:5 loss against Team Great Britain and will drop out of the A-level.

The team from the UK will face the already qualified austrians on the last day of the tournament at 12:30 in Solingen to battle for the 9th spot.

In a rematch of the 2016 championship final, the Netherlands eged out Spain 1-0 in Saturdays Semis on Calten Daals RBI-Single in the eight Inning that scored Kalian Sams. Sams had started the frame with a single and was bunted over to second Base by Dwane Kemp on a sacrifice-bunt. In an tight battle of two evenly matched teams, the defending champs had just enough defense to keep spain from scoring even one run.  Lowuin Sacramento (7.2 IP, 4 Hits, 1 ER, 5 Ks, L) started for Spain and did a fine job against the vaunted dutch offense that had registered a tournament high eight homeruns just the day before. Diegomar Markwell (3.0 IP, 2 H, 3 Ks), Tom de Blok (5.0 IP, 2 Hits, 4 Ks, W) and Juan Sulbaran (S) combined to shut out the spanish Offense although Spain (5) had one more hit than the Netherlands (4). Lesther Galvan had two hits in the losing cause. The Netherlands will meet either Israel or Italy in Sundays Grand Final at 7:00 PM in Bonn. The Dutch vie for their 23^rd European Championship-title.

The Italian team managed to beat Israel in a close game and secured their spot in the final for the European Championship.

Both teams got off to a slow start in the early innings, no runs were scored through the first two. The Italian offense came awake in the third inning, scoring four runs on four hits. Team Israel needed some more time to find into the game, but im the fifth inning they turned the game around on a Home Run by Danny Valencia and a Grand Slam by Simon Rosenbaum. In the sixth inning they even managed to expand their lead on another Home Run. Though to the two-run deficit the Italian team never gave up and it apid off, when they retook the lead in the eighth on two Home Runs that brought in three. Closer Alex Bassini managed to lock down the save and lift his team to the final. 

None of the Israelian pitchers threw more than three innings, together they gave up seven runs. In the offense Danny Valencia, Rop Paller and Simon Rosenbaum each showed up with their Home Runs. The Italian starter gave up five runs in three innings of work, but the brilliant Italian Bullpen gave up only one more run the entire game. For the Italian offense both Chris Collabello and Alberto Mineo hit Home Runs.

The Israelian team will face Spain tomorrow in the third-place game, Team Italy are going to play the final against the Netherlands.

Team Israel played long ball in its Quarterfinal matchup with France coming out on top 8-2 with Homeruns by Danny Valencia, Nick Rickles and Rob Paller. Headcoach Eric Holtz gave Joey Wagman his third Start in Tournament, and the 28-year-old Righthander did not dissapoint giving up just three hits in four Innings. France Starter Owen Ozanich meanwhile was tagged for three long balls by Danny Valencia, Nick Rickles and Rob Paller in the first four Innings that gave Israel a commanding 7-0 lead. France got two Runs back in the sixth against Reliever David Sharabi. Paller made it 8-2 after a Bases-loaded Walk in the seventh Inning. Zach Weiss and Jonathan Demarte pitched three scoreless Innings out of the Bullpen for Israel to close out the game. Ozanich was credited with the loss (3.0 IP, 7 Hits, 7 Runs) while Wagman got the win. Jeremy Wolf had three Hits for Israel, Valencia, Rickles and Paller each collected 2 RBIs. 

Israel will play the winner of the Italy-Germany contest in the semis that takes place later on friday evening.

For the second time in three days Sweden took on Great Britain in the European Baseball Championship 2019. And for the second time the British team came out as winner. The ball game ended after eight innings in Solingen with a score of 12:2. Sweden remains winless in this years tournament and will finish in 12th Place.

The British Skipper, Liam Carroll, sent Alex Webb (3 IP, 2 ER) on the mound. The Pitcher would only last into the fourth inning, after giving up two runs to the Swedish side. Reliever Paul Kirkpatrick (W, 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 K) took over and never looked back. The British Pitcher did not allow Sweden another run in the remaining six innings. And because Great Britains offense combined for 15 Hits to score 12 runs, the game ended early after eight innings. Swedish starting Pitcher Elvis Hammarstadt (L, 2 IP, 4 ER) took the loss after only surviving two innings on the mound.

While the tournament is over for Team Sweden, the British side will take on Croatia on Saturday in Solingen (12:30h) in the next game of the classification round.

The young group of Austrians around starting pitcher Christian Tomsich will stay in Europe’s highest level. 

In the 1st inning Team Austria scores against Team Croatia through a 2-run-homerun by Benjamin Salzmann. Austria’s offense can add to their lead in the 3rd. with a 3-run-homerun by Moritz Hackl they score a total of 6 runs in the 3rd. Starting pitcher for Croatia, Marin Tadic has to leave early and hands over to Ronald Krsolovic. He’s followed by the 18 year old Borna Strelec in the 5th inning. The austrians get runners on base again and score 2 more RBI’s by Dominik Talir to make it a 10 run lead.

Starting pitcher for Austria, the 41year old veteran Christian Tomsich, only allows 3 baserunners in 7 shutout innings to make it a 7 inning mercy-rule win.

For the first time in austrian baseball-history the team around Headcoach Hiro Sakanashi will remain in the A-level. On Sunday they will play for the 9th spot of the tournament.

The strong Dutch offense left Team Belgium no chance and won by the 15-Run-Rule. Key to victory for the Netherlands were eight Home Runs.

The Belgian team got off to a good start taking a two to zero lead in the top of the first inning. But the Dutch team managed to strike back immediately, scoring five runs off of three Home Runs in the bottom half. In the following innings they kept hitting the Belgian pitching really well, scoring twelve more runs on five Home Runs and ending the game in the fifth inning. With todays performance the Dutch team showed why they are the biggest candidate to win the European Champinoship yet again.

The Dutch starter Orlando Yntema threw the entire five innings holding the Belgian offense to two runs. Calten Daal, Roger Bernadina, Curt Smith, Ademar Rifaela, Dashenko Ricardo, Kalian Sams as well as Hendrik Clementina each hit Home Runs with Clementina standing out by hitting two. The Belgians had a very bad day with every pitcher allowing multiple runs and only two batters managing to record hits.

After the impressive win the Netherlands secured their spot in the Semifinals, Team Belgium faces getting knocked out of the tournament.

Dramatik pur im Solinger Viertelfinalspiel: Erst im 10. Inning brachte Spaniens Matchwinner Catcher Blake Ochoa seinen Teamkollegen Jesus Ustariz mit dem erlösenden Schlag über den Outfieldzaun zum 5:4 ins Ziel. Eigentlich hätte der Endstand bei vollbesetzten Bases nach einem Homerun 8:4 heißen müssen - aber die Freude von Ochoas Teamkollegen über den mächtigen Schlag kannte keine Grenzen, so dass Ochoa lediglich noch das erste Base erreichte bis die Männer in weiß rot jubelnd in seine Arme fielen. Damit trifft Spanien morgen um 15 Uhr in Bonn im ersten Halbfinale auf Europameister Niederlande. Tschechien muss in die Qualifikationsrunde um den letzten verbleibenden Platz für das Olympiaqualifikationsturnier. 

Dem Krimi vorausgegangen war ein über die gesamte Spielzeit hart umkämpftes Spiel, in dem beide Teams Nervenstärke zeigten. Den besseren Start erwischte Spanien. Während Starting Pitcher Carlos Sierra die drei ersten tschechischen Schlagleute alle per Stikeout auf die Bank schickte und im zweiten Inning eine brenzlige bases loaded Situation mit einem passenden Double Play löste, sorgten vier Hits der Spanier gegen den tschechischen Startwerfer Radim Chroust für die 2:0 Führung. Wer dachte, der Favorit würde diese Führung sicher nach Hause bringen musste sich eines Besseren belehren lassen. In der oberen Hälfte des fünften Inning sorgte Shortstop Martin Schneider zunächst für den 2:2 Ausgleich. Anschließend erhöhte Martin Muzik gar auf 3:2 für Tschechien. Doch auch die Spanier behielten die Nerven und kamen postwendend durch einen 2-Run Homerun von Jesus Ustariz zur erneuten 4:3 Führung. Diese währte indes nicht lange. Im siebten Inning sorgte Matej Hejma per Homerun zum erneuten Ausgleich. Für Spanien reagierte und brachte sein Relief-Ass, den ehemaligen Major Leaguer Rhiner Cruz früher als sonst im siebten Inning. Und Cruz machte seine Sache gut und hielt die Tschechen bis ins neunte Inning in Schach. Doch auch die tschechischen Pitcher hielten dem Offensivdruck der Iberer Stand, so dass nach den regulären 9 Innings kein Sieger feststand. 

Trotz zwei Läufern auf Base durch die nun anzuwendenden Tie-Break Regeln vermochte Tschechien jedoch nicht die Führung zu übernehmen. So war es an Blake Ochoa der Held des Abends zu werden… 

Den Win in diesem Spiel holt sich der Spanier Antonio Noguero, unglücklicher Verlierer war der auf Pitcher gewechselte Martin Schneider.

It was 22:12h when the German hopes for the semis were crushed by Alberto Mineo’s walk-off-homerun with two outs in the ninth Inning. Italy beat Germany 7:5 in the last quarterfinal of this years European Baseball Championship in Bonn. The host will now face France on Saturday (11h) to battle out fifth place and the final spot for the Olympic qualifier with Belgium and the Czech Republic.

At the beginning of the evening it looked like Italy could face its first and potentially costly loss of the tournament. The German squad tagged Italien starter Alessandro Maestrifor four hits and four runs, including a towering Homerun by Pascal Amon. On the other side, German starter Luke Sommer, took control early and kept the Italiens off the scoreboard until the fifth inning, when the favourite brought in two runs to cut the German lead to 5:2. Once the Italien offensive motor got running the Azzuri had tied the game in the sixth against reliever Samuel Steigert.

Both sides could not cross home plate in the following Innings, that is until Alberto Mineo’s swing capped the German’s hope for the semi-finals. Tomorrow Italy will face Israel (19h) to fight for the finals. 

The Austrian team took an early 4:0-lead against Great Britain and never looked back in the first placement game of the European Championship 2019 in Bonn. In the end Team Austria outlasted the British Team in their second victory with the score of 6:1.

Moritz Scheicher set the tone in the first inning with his lead-off home run against British Starter Rei Martinez (1.1 IP, 4H, 5 ER). After conceding four more runs early in the game Martinez’ day ended in the second inning. Ethan Solomon (4.2 IP, 0 ER, 7K) took over on the mound. He silenced the Austrian bats in the following Innings, but the damage was done. The Austrian starter Tobias Kiefer (6 IP, 1 ER, 4K) kept his opponents honest in his strong six innings of work for the win.

Austria will face the winner of the game between Croatia and Sweden on Friday, while Great Britain will take on the loser of that duel.

Just one day after their 0:23-blowout against France the Croatian Team collected their first win of the European Baseball Championship 2019 with a 17:2-win in six Innings against Sweden. The Scandinavians remain winless after six games and will face Great Britain on Friday in their last chance for a win in the tournament.

 Sweden even scored the first runs of the game in the first inning, when Pontus Bystroem and Alex Rubanowitz crossed home plate. After that Croatian starting pitcher Antonio Horvatic (W, CG, 6 IP, 2 ER, 8 K) found his groove and cruised to victory with plenty of run support from his offense. Ross Vokuvich and Andrija Tomic (3 Hits, 3 R, 3RBI) both homered, while short-stop Kruno Gojkovic collected four hits, three runs and one RBI. Swedish Starter Jesper Svedhem (L, 2 IP, 6 ER)was tagged with the loss after giving up six Runs in just two innings on the mound.

Team Croatia will take Austria on Friday in the continuing race for ninth place in the Tournament.

Italy improved to 5-0 in Group Play after a 11:04 victory over Belgium in Wednesdays morning-game. The Italians were already qualified for their upcoming match against the fourth-place team from Group A in Fridays quarterfinal outings. Belgium will end up in fourth place, thus facing the Group A Winners (probably Israel or the Netherlands) in the Quarterfinals.  Angelo Palumbo allowed only two hits in five Innings, striking out six Batters, making him the winner. John Andreoli homered in the first Inning, giving Italy an early advantage. Belgian Starter Jace van Droogenbroeck (3.1 IP, 4 ER) took the loss . Italy build a 7:0 lead but Belgium cut the deficit to 7:4 after Sam Boermans Homerun und Doubles by Leonal Reina und Thomas Wolf in the 8^th Inning against Reliever Mattia Aldegheri. Italy responded in typical fashion when Chris Colabello went deep in the bottom half of the Inning – 11:4 for the Third-place-finishers from 2016. Colabello and Alessandro Vaglio each hat 3 RBIs for their team. Leonel Reina had two hits and two RBIs for Belgium.

With a 13:7 win, Great Britain for now remains alive in their quest for 4^th place in Group A and thus maintains its chance to advance to the quarter finals. Manager Liam Carroll´s team now is in need of help by Germany in their nightcap vs. the Czech Republic. Great Britain needs a win by Germany to finish ahead of the Czech Republic due to their favorable tiebreaker and to go on and face Group B winner Italy in the quarterfinals. 

Shortstop Will Savage blasted a leadoff Homerun to give Great Britain an early lead. His teammates gradually tacked on more runs, including a 3^rd inning safety squeeze RBI by Richard Klijn with the bases loaded to make it 5:0. In spite of the early deficit, the winless Swedish team showed signs of life. After two runs in the bottom of the 3^rd and a solo Homerun by Peter Johanessen in the 4^th, the team from Scandinavia briefly cut the lead to 3:5. But in end, Great Britain weren ´t going to waste their chance to advance and in the end coasted to a 13:7 win. After the completion of their suspended game vs. the Netherlands, down 2:10 in the 9^th, later today, Great Britain will now keep its fingers crossed for a German win while Sweden will keep focusing on remaining in Pool A. 

In a basically meaningless game to complete play in Group B, France routed Croatia in Solingen via the „Mercy Rule“ by a final score of 23:0. Of course, it was known even prior to the game that France was certain to finish in 3rd place of Group B due to a favorable tiebreaker vs. 4th place Belgium - regardless of the outcome of this game. Meanwhile, winless Croatia had no chance to advance to the quarterfinals anymore anyway, so Head Coach James Summers was able to rest his best Pitchers for the upcoming games to avoid being relegated to the B-Pool. 

The game turned into a one sided affair very quickly. After taking an early 1:0 lead, France scored a whopping 14 Runs in the bottom of the 2nd to make it 15:0. After tacking on 7 more Runs in the 3rd and another in the 4th, the game ended early with a score of 23:0 in favor of France via the „Mercy Rule“. France´s strong offense was led by RF Bastien Dagneau who went 3 for 5 with a HR and 6 RBI. France will meet a much stronger opponent in the quarterfinals on Friday with Israel which finished 2nd in Group A. Croatia will square off tomorrow at 3 PM already vs. Sweden which finished in last place of Group A.

The day in Solingen was kicked off with the matchup between Austria and Spain. Both teams knew the position in the standing in group B already, so there was no relevance for the result in this game.
Team Austria sent rookie Christoph Vanas to the Mound. Jesus Ustariz and the veteran lineup of Spain made sure to welcome the youngster on this level, when they kicked off the game with a 2-run shot.
In the second inning, the defense in red and white wasn't able to defend the hard hit balls. Walks and a couple of errors gave the runner-up from the 2016 European Championship another four runs, to walk away with a 6:0 lead.
The Spanish didn't slow down a bit and kept scoring inning for inning. Meanwhile, Jorge Balboa was sent to the mound to control the Austrian hitters in today's matchup. He did just that and didn't allow a run. Eventually Lowuin Sacramento gave up the first run to Austria, which was a dinger by Moritz Scheicher, that scored the lone run for the home team.
Spain also didn't stop hitting the ball hard in the sixth inning, when they ran up the scoreboard for a final score of 19:1 after six innings and the mercy rule in place.

The Dutch team first faced unbeaten Team Israel on Wednesday afternoon. The remainder of the game against Great Britain was played after this.

Veteran pitcher Rob Cordemans conceded two runs in the second inning when Daniel Valencia homered and took Blake Gaillen with around the bases. The Netherlands realized the equalizer one inning later when Dwayne Kemp scored on a RBI of Curt Smith. The second Dutch run was the result of a balk by starting pitcher Schlomo Lipetz. Calten Daal was the one who scored the 2-2.  

In the fifth at bat of the Netherlands 4 runs were scored: Dwayne Kemp tripled to left field and passed home plate on a RBI of Roger Bernardina. He also scored. Then Ademar Rifaela homered for the fourth time this competition. Sharlon Schoop also scored on this. Reliever Jon Moscot then took over from Schlomo Lipetz. 

The Israelis scored twice at their at bat in the sixth inning: Ty Kelly scored the 3-6 when Tal Erel reached first base on a fielder’s choice. In the same action that caught out Zach Prenprase, Benjamin Wanger ensured the fourth run for Team Israël.

In the bottom of the 6th inning the Dutch hitting machine really took off: Rifaela homered for the fifth time this competion and this meant that besides himself, Curt Smith and Roger Bernadina scored. Two more solo homeruns by Hendrik Clementina and Kalian Sams resulted in a 4-12 lead.

Just one more run was scored in the eight at bat of The Netherlands: Curt Smith scored on a RBI of Dashenko Ricardo. The Israeli team already given up winning by that time and closer Tom Stuifbergen made it very hard for them to  think otherwise.

The win against Team Israel (4-13) was not celebrated for long because there was still one inning to be played from the game against Great Britain of last Saturday. This game was suspended due to darkness. Gary Davison pitched the remainder for Great Britain and Shairon Martis did the same for The Netherlands. There were no changes in the score so the final result was a 2-10 win for the Dutch team.

At the end of the group stage Team Germany let the Czech Republic slide by into third place after a 6:10-loss on Wednesday night in the Rheinaue-Stadium in Bonn. The host could not protect an early 2:0-lead in front of a crowd of 700 against the resilient Czech Team.

Reliever Daniel Padysak (3.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 K) notched the win finishing off the game after Starter Jan Novak left the mound to start the fifth, who had surrendered just two runs while throwing two strikeouts. German starting pitcher Julius Spann only gave up one earned run in his five innings of work on the mound, but was still tagged with the loss. In the end it was Germany’s tendency to strand runners on the bases compared to the visitors that proved to be costly for the home team. While the Czech Team scored ten runs on 12 hits, the Germans struggled to be productive. They also collected 12 hits, but only managed to score six runs. Marco Cardoso and shortstop Alex Schmidt were successful at the plate with three hits each and Pascal Amon’s Homerun in the ninth came too late to change the outcome of the game. The Czech’s offensive charge was led by Matej Hejma’s 3-run-home run in the sixth inning and by the Hajtmar brothers, Adam and Jakob, who combined for four hits.

 Both teams will be off tomorrow with Germany joining the quarterfinal action on Friday night at 19:00 hrs against the unbeaten Italian team. The Czech Republic will face Spain in Solingen (16:00 hrs). France will take on Israel at 11:00 hrs and the quarterfinals are completed with the match-up between the Netherlands and Belgium at 15:00 hrs in Bonn.

Tuesdays morning match at Rheinaue Stadium saw a hard hitting french side putting up big numbrs against their belgian neighbours. France won the contest by a ten-run-rule decision 12:2 and moved up in Group B table play ahead of their opponent. French Starter Marc-André Habeck (7.0 IP, 4 H, 9 Ks, W) held the belgian Batters in cheque for most of the time and only allowed Sam Boermans Homerun in the fifth Inning. France was well ahead at that time due to some big hits from Mael Zan and Jose Paula that made the score 5:1 for the Baseball Equippe tricolore. Belgean Starter Artuur Driessen (4.2 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 3 ER, L) did not get much help from his defense and was liftet for Ben van Nuffel. The game was out of reach for Belgium in the 8^thInning when France connected for five more runs. The scoreline read: Single, Double, Triple, Homerun, Homerun. Andy Paz und Bastien Dagneau hit bombs that landed in the outfield stands and provided a convincing 12:1 lead. Belgium did get one run back but could not prevent the premature ending. Paz had three RBIs, Dagneau, Paula and Zan each contributed two RBIs.

Team Israel kept their winning streak alive, winning their fourth game at this European Championship by a score of seven to four.

Great Britain got off to a strong start, after a Double and a Single Ben Andrews hit the Ball over the fence to give his team an early 3:0 lead. But Israel came back immediately, scoring two runs on a walk and two hits in the second inning. And in the fifth inning they tied the game on an RBI Single by Danny Valencia. In the seventh Inning Dodgers prospect Blake Gaillen started to heat up hitting a two-run home run to give his team a five to three lead. Great Britain managed to cut the lead down to one run, but another run in the eighth and Blake Gaillen with his second Home Run in the ninth secured the win for Team Israel.

Israelian starter Alon Leichman threw four Innings, allowing three Runs, Reliever Banjamin Wagner earned the Win, Zach Weiss secured the save. Offensively it was Blake Gaillen with another great performance hitting two Home Runs. British starter Spencer Kreisberg threw only 3.2 innings allowing two runs, Relievers Paul Kirkpatrick and Greg Hendrix combined to allow five more. Strongest offensive player for Great Britain was Ben Andrews with three hits and three RBI, Will Savage and Jordan Serena both picked up two hits.

Team Israel will face the Netherlands in their last match of the group phase, Great Britain has to beat Sweden for a chance to advance to the next round.

On the sunny 4th day of the BASEBALL EM 2019 Team Austria scores in the 1st inning through a 3-run-homerun by Samuel Hackl. In the 2nd inning Team Austria can score again through a RBI-basehit by Ferdinand Obed. Team Croatia scores in the 2nd inning after a lead-off-triple by Ronald Krsolovic and an RBI-groundball by Ross Vukovich to make it 4:1. The following 3 innings go scoreless by a good performance of the starting pitchers on both sides. Borna Strelec for Croatia and Alexander Seidl for Austria. 

In the 7th inning Team Austria goes ahead through a double by Ben Salzmann with bases-loaded and a grand-slam-homerun by Dominik Talir. Together they add 8 more runs to the score to make it 12:1.

Team Croatia has no answer in the 7th. Austrians Starter Alexander Seidl completes 7 innings with only 2 strikeouts. With error-less defense, Team Austria takes its first win of the tournament in mercy rule. 

This is actually the first win ever for Team Austria on the highest european level.

Thanks to a strong first Inning the Czech Republic beat Sweden by a score of10:3e. With their fourth straight loss Team Sweden has no chance to make the quarterfinals anymore.

The Czech team got to Swedens starter Leo Bristow early, scoring five runs on five hits in the first. The Swedish team seemed to need some time to get over that start, being able to score their first run  in the fourth inning. But it was just the next inning when the Czech team managed to bring another run across to get the lead back to five. And they were even able to expand the lead in the seventh scoring two more runs. A Swedish run in the seventh got erased by two more Czech runs in the eighth, and even though Team Sweden managed to score one more run in the ninth the Czech Republic managed to secure the win.

Jan Tomek started a good game for the Czech team, throwing six innings, allowing only one run and striking out six. The offense managed to record eleven Hits, three of those came from Matej Hejma. Swedens starter Leo Bristow threw four innings allowing six earned runs, for the Swedish offense Joel Johnson and Peter Johannessen both recorded two hits.

The Swedish team will face Great Britain in their last game of the group phase, the Czech Republic will take on Germany.

The German National team lost to the Netherlands by a score of 8:1, the German offensive players didn´t seem to be able to handle the Dutch pitching. Nevertheless Germany qualified already for the Quarterfinals.

Team Netherlands got off to a good start scoring a run against German starter Daniel Thieben in the first inning. Just an inning later the Germans were able to tie the game on a Double by Marco Cardoso with a run from Eric Brenk. From this point on two Dutch players took over the control of the game: Starter Lars Hujer and Left Fielder Ademar Rifaela. The Dutch outfielder gave his team the lead with a two-run shot in the second, in the following innings the German batters were without a chance to score runs to come back. In the fourth inning it was Rifaela with his second two-run bomb of the game to expand the Dutch lead to four to one. The last offensive action belonged, of course, to Rifaela, who hit a three-run Home Run in the eighth to secure the win for the Netherlands.

Dutch starter Lars Hujer pitched an absolute gem, throwing 6.2 one-run innings while striking out eleven. Best offensive player was obviously Ademar Rifaela, who drove in seven of the eight Dutch runs. The starter for Team Germany Daniel Thieben went 5 innings allowing five runs, Reliever Lukas Steinlein allowed three more. Marco Cardoso was the best offensive player in the German team, Eric Brenk had some great plays in the defense.

Despite the loss Germany qualified for the Quarterfinals as they have beaten Great Britain in the direct game against each other. Germany will face the Czech Republic tomorrow to secure position 3 or 4 in Group A, the Dutch team will play against unbeaten Israel.

Italy can overcome Spain in a game between the two Group B leaders recording 16 hits, with a final result of 3:13.

Starting in the first inning, Italy got its offensive powerhouse started. A double and the following two-run home run by Chris Colabello gave Italy the early lead. The third run followed in the third inning after a pair of walks by the Spanish pitcher Ricardo Hernandez. Fernando Baez was able to stop Team Italy from scoring for several innings and like that Spain came back into the game with a two-RBI Double in the 6^th. In the 7^ththe Italian offense was able to gain power again. Mazzanti hit a massive homerun after Chris Colabello’s hit, which puts Italy up front with 2:7. After the pitching change for team Italy, Michael Johnson manages to prevent Spain from scoring any more runs. In the 9^th, Team Italy puts a strong end to the game, scoring another six runs, resulting in the final score of 3:13.

Italy’s pitcher Lugo gets the win, having pitched 6.2 innings, earning 3 runs. 

Nach einem engen Spiel kann das britische Team im zehnten Inning den Tiebreaker nutzen und das Spiel mit 4:3 für sich entscheiden. 

Bis zum vierten Inning konnte keines der beiden Teams einen ihrer Spieler über die Home Plate bringen. Erst Ben Andrews schaffte mit einem RBI Triple Veränderung. Die Briten ließen schnell einen weiteren Run folgen, welcher durch einen Solo Home Run von Jordan Serena im sechsten Inning geschlagen wurde.  Die Tschechen hatten bis dahin wenig entgegenzusetzen. Dafür verantwortlich war die starke Pitching-Leistung von Alex Webb, welcher 6 shutout Innings warf. Im siebten Inning bricht der Pitcher des britischen Teams dann jedoch ein und lässt den Ausgleich durch Martin Schneider mit einem Home Run, welcher drei Runs nach Hause brachte, zu. Webb, welcher bis dahin 12 Strikeouts erzielt hatte, wurde danach durch Paul Kirkpatrick ersetzt. Bis zum zehnten Inning wirkten beide Teams wie gelähmt und konnten nichts am Spielstand ändern. Die Tiebreaker Rule und ein Error verschaffte den Briten Runner auf allen drei Bases. Während die Tschechen an der ersten und zweiten Base ein Double Play spielen, kann der Runner von Drei nach Hause laufen und den Briten somit den Winning Run beschaffen. Die Tschechen können in der unteren Hälfte des zehnten Innings dann nicht mehr nachlegen. 

Beide Team hatten am Ende die selbe Anzahl an Hits, letztendlich entschieden die drei Errors des tschechischen Teams das Spiel gegen sie. 

On day 3 of the tournament Team Italy was able to score early against Team Austria through a lead-off-homerun by Andrew Maggi off the austrian starter Thierry Letouze. With more italian hits and a homerun by John Andreoli in the following innings, Team Italy was up 4:0 after 3 Innings. The italian starter Andrea Pizziconi held the austrian offense silent. Only in the 4th Team Austria managed to score through back-to-back hits by Obed and Sam Hackl and shorten the score through an RBI-Single by Moritz Hackl to a 4:1. After two scoreless innings by austrian reliefer Paul Astl, Team Italy scored more runs to make it 6:1 in the 6th inning. Pizziconi and his relief-pitchers Aldegheri and Crepaldi did not allow any more runs. Even a bases-loaded-situation for Team Austria did not transfer into runs. Superstar Chris Colabello on the italian team crushed a grand-slam-homerun in the 8th to make it 10:1. The italian closer Yomel River did not allow any baserunners in the 9th. The favoured Team Italiy beats Austria 10:1. 

Belgium’s offense outhit Team Croatia thanks to a late comeback. Many hit by pitches led to the game becoming very hectic and heated.

Both teams had a hard time finding their groove, Kevin Desmedt for Belgium had a great feel for his breaking pitches, Croatia’s Jose Diaz blew his power fastball by the opponents offense. But it was his command that went flying early in the game, leading to Belgium taking a two to zero lead in the third on only one hit. In the following Innings both starters were fighting with their control and the game got hectic. Team Croatia’s starter allowed five total walks and hit four Belgian batters, in addition he didn´t seem to like the attempt to bunt against him, throwing at Tim Veragherts head for four straight pitches. On the other side Desmedt both walked and hit three batters in his outing. It was the fifth Inning when the Croatian offense was able to string some hits together and score three runs on a bases clearing double by Slobodan Gales. In the following Innings they were able to expand their lead by three runs for what seemed like a comfortable lead. But Team Belgium had other plans, scoring one in the seventh and forcing the Croatian starter to leave the game. Against Reliever Antonio Horvatic they were able to score six more runs, four of them coming in because of a Grand Slam by Thomas de Wolf. Making it even worse, all runs in that inning were not earned for the Croatian reliever. In the ninth inning Kenny van den Branden closed the game and secured Belgiums second win in the tournament. 

Kevin Desmedt threw six innings in his start, allowing four runs on five hits. Best offensive player was Thomas de Wolf with two hits with five runs batted in. Reliever van den Branden earned the win on the mound throwing two scoreless innings. Jose Diaz for Croatia threw seven Innings, giving up five earned runs. Cristopher Ciatti and Slobodan Gales both collected two hits offensively.

After three straight losses to start the tournament Team Croatia is almost out of the playoff race, Team Belgium will be taking on France tomorrow. 

The Netherlands has recovered well from the loss one day earlier against the Czechs. The team of manager Evert-Jan't Hoen struck Sweden in the afternoon match and won signed with 9-0.

Starter at the Netherlands, Donny Breek threw his first game at senior level at a European Championship and did it very well: He struck out ten batters in six collections and became the winning pitcher.

The first score of the game came in the second at bat when Sharlon Schoop entered an RBI by catcher Hendrik Clementina. He thus brought the Netherlands on a 1-0 lead. 

Two great innings on the side of the Dutch team took care of the remaining eight points: In the fifth, Roger Bernardina hit a solo homerun. Curt Smith repeated this in the next at bat. The Dutch batting machine was not finished, because after leftfielder Ademar Rifela had reached first base on a single, Sharlon Schoop also hit a homerun and in his round over the Bases Rifalea accompanied him.

Starting pitcher at Sweden, Jakob Claesson, was then relieved by Ben Johnsson. An inning later, it was his colleague on the Dutch side, Donny Breek, who was relieved by Diegomar Markwell.

The eighth inning also yielded four Dutch runs: Calten Daal hit a double by Roger Bernardina who also scored on a single by Curt Smith. The 8-0 And 9-0 came by Curt Smith and John Polonius.

The subsequent pitchers being Mikael Fasth for Ben Johnsson and Shairon Martis for Diegomar Markwell and Kevin Kelly for Shairon Martis. But there were no more changes in the score.

Evert-Jan't Hoen, manager of the Dutch team, was very happy with the win after the surprising loss against the Czech Republic: "We lost unnecessarily yesterday. It took a little longer before we finally started hitting. "About tomorrow's game:" We're are certainly ready for it. It does not matter to us that it is the home team because we have to win every game. "

Like in most of the other games at this European Championship both teams pitchers got off to a great start. The two Starters were in cruise control through the first four Innings, and fans had to wait for the middle Innings until the offenses started to heat up. After an Error in the Spanish defense Bastian Dagneau hit the ball over the fence for a two run Home Run and gave Team France a 2:0 lead. And it was just the following inning when the french added two hits and another run to the scoreboard. The Spanish offense started having success as soon as the French starter Leonel Cespedes left the mound. Reliever Eric Moore couldn’t manage to get a single batter out while allowing four runs to score, the next Reliever gave up two more runs and allowed Spain to take a six to three lead. To make it even worse for France these six runs were caused by just three hits and three errors of the French defense. After the seventh Inning ended the spectators in Solingen wouldn’t see any more offense from any team, Rhiner Cruz earned the save.

The starter for France pitched six strong Innings without allowing a run, Maxime Lefevre and Bastien Dagneau each collected two hits, including the Home Run by Dagneau. Spains starter went just 5.2 Innings allowing three earned runs, Reliever Andreas Perez picked up the win. Offensively Johnny Bethencourt, Blake Ochoa and Leonmartir Rodriguez each had two hits.

Team Spain will compete against Italy tomorrow, France will battle Belgium.

The German national team lost their first game of this European Championship, against Israel they missed several chances to score runs and got knocked out in the tenth.

Team Israel got to Germanys Starter Enorbel Marquez early bringing home the first run of the game in the opening frame. After that early run the German pitcher showed a strong performance and held the Israelian offense to that single run. On the opposite the German offense broke through in the third, scoring two runs and knocking Israels starter Gabe Cramer out of the game early. But the German pitching didn´t manage to secure the one run lead, Team Israel tied the game in the eighth after a walk and two hits. In the bottom of the ninth Germany had the chance to win the game after a triple by Marco Cardoso, but the Israelian pitching managed to get out of the jam. Thanks to the Tiebreak-rule one hit for Israel was enough to take a two run lead in the tenth, in the bottom half Simon Gühring missed a Walk-off Home Run by inches and Israel managed to secure a lucky win.

Team Israel used five different pitchers for the win, with Starter Gabe Cramer being the only pitcher to allow runs. Best offensive player was Catcher Nick Rickles with two hits and two RBI. German Starter Marquez only allowed one run in five innings of work, best hitters for the German squad were Pascal Amon and Simon Gühring with two hits each.

After the unlucky loss the German team has the chance to secure their spot in the quarterfinals tomorrow in their game against the Netherlands, the Israelian team already locked their spot for the next round. 

The morning game of day 2 featured Spain vs. Belgium. Both teams won their first games on Saturday and are contenders for a trip to the WBSC Olympic Qualifiers in Bologna. The Spanish showed from the beginning on, how serious their mission was: Engel Beltre started off with a leadoff homerun, Jesus Ustariz followed with a two-run-shot and Jesus Martinez added the third dinger of the game to make it 4:0 after the first inning.

 Also Belgium knows how to hit: Thomas De Wolf hit his first dinger of the tournament to add the first Belgian run to the score board. It kept raining home runs when Spain added another one in the 5^th inning, followed by three hits and an error for five more runs. Even though the Red Hawks added for more runs in the course of the game, the Spanish hit more home runs for a final score of 13:5.

BEL: Sam Boermans: 2 for 3, 2B, HR, 2 RBI

ESP: Jesus Martinez: 2 for 3, HR, RBI; Jesus Ustariz 2 for 5, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R

In the third game of the day, France beat Austria in a game of sun and rain. Austria, who just got promoted into the A-Pool, was penalized for every little mistake they made. In third inning, Frederic Hanvi hit a grand-slam, after Austria’s shortstop misplayed a double play ball, that could have ended the inning. France was walking away with a 5:0 lead, but Austria did not give up and kept fighting. In the fourth inning their bats finally woke up, when Felix Zimmerle and Dominik Talir connected for the first three runs. An inning later the Hackl brothers, Sammy and Mo combined for another two runs.

In the sixth inning, France returned the favor, answered with a total of seven runs after a hand full of walks and two home runs by Bastien Dagneau and Frederic Hanvi. Although Austria could score once more, France earned their first win in their second game.

AUT: Moritz Scheicher: 4 for 4, 2B, 2 RBI

FRA: Frederic Hanvi: 2 for 5, 2 HR, 7 HR

After Sweden’s loss to the german national team last night, the team now has to accept a close defeat to Israel as well. The team of head coach Eric Holtz manages to turn the game around in the final half-inning after Sweden managed to get the lead during the game. Israel’s second win of the tournament started with an unspectacular first inning. The israeli team earns their first run in the second inning, the Swedish team takes until the fourth inning to get their first runner across home plate. Nicholas Filice is the first to hit the ball well, he ties the game in the fourth with a solo home run. The israeli Pitcher Eric Brodkowitz causes another run with three consecutive balks. In the further going neither of the teams manage to be productive until the seventh inning, when Daniel Johnsson scores after a sacrifice flyout. Niklas Melin, the Swedish reliever defends the lead until the ninth inning, when Jacob Syren took over on the mound. Syren, who was celebrating a home game, couldn’t achieve his goal as closing pitcher. Following the singles of Nick Rickles and Danny Valencia a throwing error, a walk and a wild pitch helped team Israel enough to bring the tie just seconds before the end. With runners on second and third base, the Swedish team decided to intentionally walk Robb Paller and therefore load the bases. A four-pitch walk then brings the win for the israelis. Even though the team Sweden showed some solid batting and defense it wasn’t quite enough for the team of manager Jim Sasko to achieve the first win of the tournament. 

In einem Spiel, welches durchgehend von den Pitchern beider Teams dominiert wurde, behielt das italienische Team gegen Kroatien das bessere Ende für sich und setzte sich mit 2:1 durch.

Bereits früh im Spiel wurde klar, dass beide Starter ein starkes Spiel parat hatten, in den ersten drei Innings konnte keines der beiden Teams Runs erzielen. Dies änderte sich erst durch einen Error in der italienischen Defensive, der maßgeblich zum einzigen Run der Kroaten beitrug. Deren Führung hielt jedoch nur knapp ein Inning, bis Andrew Maggi das Spiel im Alleingang ausglich. 

Die Starter beider Teams zeigten auch in den folgenden Innings, was in ihnen steckt, und keine weiteren Runs wurden erzielt, so das es nach neun Innings nach wie vor 1:1 stand. Infolgedessen trat zum ersten Mal bei diesem Turnier die Tiebreak-Regel in Kraft, ab dem zehnten Inning startet jede Offensive mit Läufern auf der ersten und der zweiten Base.

Doch auch aus dieser vielversprechenden Situation konnten die Kroaten kein Kapital schlagen, Italiens Reliever Alex Bassani schickte die nächsten drei Batter per Strikeout zurück ins Dugout. Ganz anders die italienische Offensive, John Andreoli verschwendete keine Zeit und brachte mit seinem Walk-Off-Single den entscheidenden Run über die Platte.

Erwähnenswert beim italienischen Team ist auch John Andreoli mit seinem Base Hit im zehnten Inning, außerdem Andrew Maggi mit zwei Hits und einem Home Run. Starter Murilo Brolo pitchte sechs starke Innings und gab keinen Earned Run ab. Stärkster Batter einer schwachen kroatischen Offensive war Kruno Gojkovic mit zwei Hits, ganz im Gegensatz zum überragenden Starting Pitcher Pavao Karin, der neun Innings warf und nur einen Run hinnehmen musste. 

Das siegreiche italienische Team trifft am morgigen Montag in Bonn auf Österreich, Kroatien muss gegen Belgien ran.

The team of national coach Evert-Jan’t Hoen has lost her first game of the European championship 6-8 against the Czechs.

In Sunday's afternoon game dominated by the rain, Team Netherlands gradually lost control of the game. The Dutch were already 1-0 ahead in the first inning by an RBI of first baseman Curt Smith, who brought Calten Daal home. The Czech team was tied up in its fourth at bat by a homerun by Martin Cervenka. Hereafter, they again believed in their chances against the Netherlands: Martin Muzik, Petr Zyma, Jakub and Adam Haijtmar brought the score to 1-5. Starting pitcher on the Dutch side Tom de Blok had already been replaced by Juan Carlos Sulbaran.

Still, the Dutch Team did something back: Calten Daal hit a homerun and took John Polonius and Yurendell de Caster on his trip for the 4-5 score. However, the attack was answered quickly because Martin Schneider made it 4-6 through an RBI and a score from Adam Haijtmar. The connection run was also in the making when Kalian Sams came over the home plate on a wild pitch. With this, the work of starting pitcher of the Czechs, Marek Minarik, was done and he was replaced by Daniel Padysak. His colleague on the Dutch side was Mike Bolsenbroek, who in turn was relieved by Tom Stuifbergen. The sting was in the tail as often when in the ninth inning Matej Hejma and Martin Cervenka arranged for a further run through the Czech Republic. In a frantic attempt, the Dutch team tried to prevent a defeat, but pitcher Martin Schneider limited the damage to 6-8. With this, the Netherlands suffered a rare defeat against the Czech Republic.

Team Germany won a pitchers duel by the score of 1:0. It´s the second win for the German squad.

It didn´t take long for the fans at the Ballpark Rheinaue to realize it wasn´t going to be a slugfest in tonights game. Both starters were bringing their best stuff to the field. Youngster Sascha Koch for Germany at his homefield as well as Michael Roth for Great Britain held the opposite batters to a minimum. The spectators didn´t see much offense until the fifth inning, when Second Baseman Marco Cardoso hit the ball over the right-centerfield fence and brought home the first and only run for Germany. Besides that Home Run Roth had a stellar outing, pitching eight complete innings needing only 97 pitches and holding the German batters to three hits. But due to the incredible performance by the German pitching staff this was enough; starter Sascha Koch threw seven shutout Innings, allowing only four hits and striking out seven. Minor league pitcher Sven Schueller closed the door earning a six out save, shutting down any hope  the British team had for a comeback.

The Great Britain team will look to bounce back tomorrow in their game against the Czech Republic while Team Germany will look forward to continue their winning streak against Israel.

Back-to-Back-to-Back Doubles by Spain's heart of the lineup in the 8^th Inning turned an early 1-2 deficit into a narrow 3:2 Win for the Runners-up of 2016.  Jesus Ustariz, Lesther Galvan and Fernando Martinez provided all the firepower that Spain needed to turn the match around. Croatia led for most of the rain-threatened affair after they had scored on a booming Double by Catcher Philip Smith that hit the outfield fence. But the Underdogs could not keep the lead in crunchtime. Croatian Starter Marin Tadic (7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB) pitched a nice game until the spanish Sluggers exploded for three long drives that made Croatian Manager James Summers go to his Reliever Antonio Horvatic.  A 45 minute Rain Delay did not help the Croatian Cause as well. With his team leading, Spanish Manager Luis Sojo went to his bullpen and shut the Croatian Offense down completely. Antonio Noguera und Rhiner Cruz came in to pitch two perfect Innings. Starting Pitcher Jorge Balboa collected the win in seven Innings (6 H, 2 ER, 9 Ks), while Cruz got the Save in the ninth Inning.  Galvan, Martinez und Shortstop Jhonny Bethencourt each had two Hits, Croatias Kruno Gojkovic scored both runs for his squad.

Austria went into their first A-Pool game since 2007 as the underdog against a strong Belgian Team, who finished 6^th 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 8^th 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

All eyes were on Team Israel, when they faced the Czech Republic in their historic debut at the European Championship. The two opponents are both contenders for a medal at this tournament. 

The Czech struck first after an error and a hit. The 1:0 lead only lasted until the third when Blake Gaillen hit the first home run of this tournament to tie the game. Joey Wagman for Team Israel and Radim Chroust for the Czech delivered a stellar performance on the mound and didn’t allow a lot of traffic on the bases. In the 5^th Wagman loaded up the bases but the Czech Republic could not take advantage of it. Two frames later Israel loaded up the bases but this time Israel found the trigger when Nick Rickles doubled down the right field line to clear the bases. A single later, Israel scored the 5:1.

After a rain delay, the game continued in the 8^th. With two runners in scoring position the Czech had another great chance to add some runs to the scoreboard, but again without success. Jonathan Demarte came in as a reliever and cut shut the door for Israel’s first win.

ISR: Blake Gail: 4 for 4, 2B, HR; Nick Rickles: 1 for 5, 2B, 3 RBI

Behind a dominating 21 hit attack, Italy had no problems beating an unlucky french side. Back-to-back-Homeruns from Federico Celli and Sebastiano Poma put Italy in front 3:0 in the bottom of the third Inning. France managed to get two runs back due to a Homerun from Andy Paz. Italy scored its fourth run just before an hour long rain delay. When play resumed only one team took action: Italy wasted no time in increasing its lead. The ten time European Champs scored five more runs to make it 9:2 by the sixth Inning. It did not matter which french pitcher took the mount, the italian batters put good wood on the ball. Seven more times an italian runner crossed homeplate, the final score of 16:2 was surely unexpected. Italian Leftielder Sebastiano Poma was the MVP of the match with six Hits, five RBI and four Runs scored. French Starter Kenio Perez took the loss, Italys Michael Johnson made the most of his 2.1 Inning relief work by securing himself the Win.

The game started an hour later because of the rain delay of the Czech-Israel game. Starting pitcher for Team GB Ethan Solomon took off smoothly only, walking 1st baseman Curt Smith, but without any consequences. His colleague of Team Netherlands, Orlando Yntema, walked Will Savage being the first batter he faced, but eliminated the next batters, including local hero Ben Andrews.  

Sicnarf Loopstok opened the second inning with a base hit, and a hit by Sharlon Schoop loaded the bases. Loopstok scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly of Calten Daal. It started to rain again in the top of the third inning. So after a brief delay the Netherlands resumed at bat: an RBI of Sharlon Schoop made both Curt Smith and Kalian safely pass home plate for a 0-3 lead. Team GB did not have an answer in that inning on the solid pitching of Orlando Yntema. 

A brave attempt in the fourth inning by Roger Bernardina on a hit of Kalian Sams was ended in a successful throw out. Team GB was trying very hard, but saw their chances slimmed after Jordan Serena caught stealing second base. Schoop scored the fourth run of the game on the next at bat of the Dutch on an RBI of Calten Daal. In that same fifth inning Rosen reached first base on a fielding error, but a sixth strike out ended the inning. 

Team GB replaced pitcher Ethan Solomon by Cody Chartrand in the top of the sixth inning. He had a tough time against the Dutch resulting in loading the bases resulting in the 0-6 by Bernardina and Sams. But that was not the end of it: Both Rifaela and Clementina scored in fielding errors. So the 0-8 was on the scoreboard. Serena had a double in his at bat and had an outstanding chance for opening the score for Great Britain in a hit by Ben Andrews, but was caught out at home.

The seventh inning meant a new pitcher for Great Britain: Daniel Cooper replaced Chartrand after the 0-9 of Curt Smith. He had a legacy of bases loaded and the 0-10 was scored by Kalian Sams. Bottom of the seventh inning meant the replacement of Orlando Yntema by Shairon Martis after 72 pitches and 7 strikeouts. Martis faced Richard Brereton who doubled and later opened the score for Great Britain on a base hit of Michael Azcuy.

No score in inning 8 for the Netherlands, but Team Great Britain had chances to double the score. Will Savage singled and reached second base on a fielding error. It was Serena who had an RBI bringing in Savage for the 2-10.  During these last innings it was getting darker by the minute and was ended officially because of insufficient light. At this moment the game is still not officially ended.

Gegen Schweden gelang der deutschen Auswahl zu später Uhrzeit ein standesgemäßes 9:1. Der Beginn des Spiels hatte sich durch zahlreiche Rain-delays in den vorherigen Spielen um über 2 Stunden verschoben, deswegen endete das Spiel der Deutschen erst nach Mitternacht.

Bereits im ersten Inning machte das deutsche Team sein Siegambitionen klar, nach zwei Walks und drei Hits stand es früh 3:0. Der Anschlusspunkt der Schweden zum 3:1s, ebenfalls im ersten Inning, wurden prompt durch zwei weitere Runs in den darauffolgenden Innings erwidert. Die darauffolgende Spielphase wurde, sicherlich auch der fortgeschrittenen Uhrzeit geschuldet, von den Pitchern dominiert, erst in den letzten beiden Innings erhöhten die Deutschen die Schlagzahl erneut und kamen zu vier weiteren Runs, die den ersten deutschen Sieg bei dieser Heim-EM perfekt machten.

Überragende Hitter für Deutschland waren Pascal Amon mit einem langen Home Run sowie Marco Cardoso und Kevin Kotowski mit jeweils drei Hits. Im deutschen Pitching konnte Relieve Lukas Steigert überzeugen, der Submariner warf aus dem Bullpen 5.1 Innings, ohne einen Run zuzulassen und verdiente sich den Win.

Stärkster Schlagmann einer weitestgehend enttäuschenden Offensive Schwedens war Alex Rubanowitz mit zwei Hits, während Daniel Lindner die stärkste Leistung der fünf Pitcher Schwedens zeigte.

Schweden trifft am morgigen Tag um 12:30 Uhr in Solingen auf Israel, Deutschland bekommt es um 19:00 Uhr mit Großbritannien zu tun.

All 47 games of the 2019 Baseball European Championship from September 7 to 15 in Bonn and Solingen, Germany will be broadcasted via live stream. From Bonn Playo.TV will produce the games, while from Solingen the local Alligators TV will take care of the stream. All games will be streamed through the online platforms www.baseballsoftball.tv and www.gametime.sport.

The tournament, which will feature 12 nations, starts with a round robin preliminary round from September 7 to 11. Afterwards the top four of each first-round pool will advance to the quarterfinals on September 13. The final will take place on Sunday, September 15 at 19:00 in Bonn.

Group A at the European Championship 2019 features defending champion Netherlands, host Germany, Israel, Great Britain, Czech Republic and Sweden. Group B consists of Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, Croatia and Austria. Austria and Israel qualified through B-Pool European Championships, while the top ten of the last European Championship in 2016 were qualified automatically.

Each day four games will be played in Bonn at two fields (11:00, 13:00, 15:00 and 19:00) and two in Solingen (12:30 and 16:00). The top five of the final standings at the European Championship will advance to the Europe-Africa Olympic Qualifier, which will be played right after the tournament in Bologna and Parma, Italy (September 18 to 22).

Tickets for the European Championship can be ordered online through the official website www.baseball-em.de.

The Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) has finalized the schedule for the 2019 European Baseball Championship from September 7 to 15 in Bonn and Solingen, Germany.

The tournament, which will feature 12 nations, starts with a round robin preliminary round from September 7 to 11. Afterwards the top four of each first-round pool will advance to the quarterfinals on September 13. The final will take place on Sunday, September 15 at 19:00 in Bonn.

Group A at the European Championship 2019 features defending champion Netherlands, host Germany, Israel, Great Britain, Czech Republic and Sweden. Group B consists of Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, Croatia and Austria. Austria and Israel qualified through B-Pool European Championships, while the top ten of the last European Championship in 2016 were qualified automatically.

Each day four games will be played in Bonn at two fields (11:00, 13:00, 15:00 and 19:00) and two in Solingen (12:30 and 16:00). All three fields got renovated for the European Championship 2019. The main field in Bonn received baseball-style floodlights.

The top five of the final standings at the European Championship will advance to the Europe-Africa Olympic Qualifier, which will be played right after the tournament in Bologna and Parma, Italy (September 18 to 22).

Tickets for the European Championship can be ordered online through the official website www.baseball-em.de.

Israel qualified for the European Championship with two straight wins against Lithuania. They will be placed into Group A at the European Championship,  facing defending champion Netherlands, host Germany, Czech Republic,  Sweden and Great Britain.

Media registration for the 2019 Baseball European Championship in  Bonn and Solingen, Germany (September 7 to 15, 2019) is now available  and will remain open until Sunday, August 25, 2019.

All members of the media, both local/national and international, who  intend to cover the European Championship must apply with the official  application form, which is available through the official tournament  website https://www.baseball-em.de/media-c89595 Information about the distribution of media credentials will be send by e-mail to all registered media personal.

The 2019 Baseball European Championship will be played from September  7 to 15. 11 of the 12 participants are already known with host Germany,  defending champion Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Czech Republic,  France, Croatia, Sweden, Great Britain and Austria. The 12^th participant will be determined at a playoff series between Lithuania and Israel at the end of July.

Games at the Baseball European Championship will be played in Bonn  (four games per day on two fields) and in Solingen (two games per day).  The round robin will take place from September 7 to 11. The top four of  each first-round pool will advance to the quarterfinals on September 13.  The final is set for Sunday, September 15 at 7pm in Bonn.

All information about the 2019 Baseball European Championship is available through the official website www.baseball-em.de or on the official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BaseballEM/

Field 2 at the Baseball-EM 2019 in Bonn, which will host one game per day, is currently receiving a facelift as well. The infield is almost finished. #BaseballEM2019 Do you already have tickets? https://www.reservix.de/tickets-baseball-europameisterschaft/t12701

Local scorers of the German Baseball and Softball Federation held a training for the Baseball-EM 2019 this past weekend. #BaseballEM2019

Volunteers wanted! Do you want to experience the Baseball-EM 2019 as a volunteer? Please contact the local organizing committee by e-mail helfer@baseball-em.de for more information.

The Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) announced the groups for  the 2019 European Championships. Five European Championships and five  Qualifiers will be played this summer including the first edition of a  Women’s Baseball European Championship.

European Championship A-Pool
Bonn & Solingen/Germany September 7 – 15, 2019

Group A:

1) Netherlands

2) Germany

3) Czech Republic

4) Sweden

5) Great Britain

6) Tbd (Promoted Team B-Pool 2019)

Group B:

1) Spain

2) Italy

3) Belgium

4) France

5) Croatia

6) Austria

European Championship B-Pool
July 1– 7, 2019

Pool 1: Trnava/Slovakia

Pool 2: Blagoevgrad/Bulgaria

There will be a drawing procedure for the two groups of this championship during the sports meeting of the congress in Athens

Subscribed Teams:

1) Belarus

2) Bulgaria

3) Greece

4) Ireland

5) Israel

6) Lithuania

7) Poland

8) Russia

9) Serbia

10) Slovakia

11) Switzerland

12) Ukraine

Additonal:

13) Romania

14) Finland

European Championship Women

Rouen/France July 31 – August 4, 2019

1) France

2) Netherlands

3) Czech Republic

European Championship U23

Prague/Czech Republic
August 7 – 11, 2019

Group A:

1) Netherlands

2) Germany

3) France

4) Great Britain

Group B:

1) Czech Republic

2) Belgium

3) Ukraine

4) Croatia

Composition of groups by ranking of the previous championship

European Championship Qualifier Juniors U18

July 8 – 13, 2019

Pool 1: Sundbyberg/Sweden

Pool 2: Miejska Gorka/Poland

Composition of groups will be done during the meeting in Athens.

Subscribed Teams:

1) Austria

2) Belgium

3) Great Britain

4) Hungary

5) Israel

6) Poland

7) Russia

8) Slovenia

9) Switzerland

10) Sweden

11) Ukraine

European Championship Cadets U15
Nettuno/Italy July 16 – 20, 2019

Group A

1) Germany

2) France

3) Italy

4) Russia

Group B

1) Netherlands

2) Czech Republic

3) Austria

4) Slovakia

Composition of groups by ranking of the previous championship, promoted teams by drawing of lots.

European Championship Juveniles U12
Trebic/Czech Republic July 1 – 7, 2019

Group A1:

1) Italy

2) Netherlands

3) France

4) Belgium

Group A2:

1) Czech Republic

2) Russia

3) Germany

4) Hungary

Group B1:

1) Ukraine

2) Austria

3) Poland

4) Slovenia

Group B2:

1) Slovakia

2) Great Britain

3) Lithuania

4) Romania

Final competition system will be decided during the meetings in  Athens. Composition of groups by ranking of the previous championship,  new teams by drawing of lots.

The ticket sale for the European Championship 2019 in Bonn and  Solingen, Germany is underway. Through official ticketing partner  Reservix day tickets can be bought for 18 € for the preliminary round  and the quarterfinals, as well as for 25 € for the semifinals and the  finals. A tournament pass with access to all games can be bought for 140  €.

Tickets are available online through https://www.reservix.de/tickets-baseball-europameisterschaft-2019/t12701 or by phone at +49-180-6050400.

The 35th European Championship is scheduled for September 6 to 15,  2019 and will be played at the ballparks of the Bonn Capitals and  Solingen Alligators. 11 of the 12 nations are already qualified with  defending champion Netherlands, host Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium,  France, Great Britain, Sweden, Croatia, Czech Republic and Austria. The  12th participant will be determined next summer.

Information about the 2019 European Championship can be found at the official tournament website www.baseball-em.de.

Am Mittwoch, den 11. Juli fand der erste Spatenstich für den Umbau  des Baseballstadions in der Bonner Rheinaue statt. In Anwesenheit von  Bonns Oberbürgermeister Ashok Sridharan, Udo Schmitz und Ute Heid vom  Vorstand der Bonn Capitals sowie DBV-Präsident Mirko Heid erfolgte der  symbolische Beginn der Modernisierung der Anlage, die für die Austragung  der Baseball-Europameisterschaft 2019 notwendig ist.

Foto: Bonn Capitals

Neben einer Sanierung der Rasen- und Tennenflächen des Spielfeldes,  der Zaunanlagen und der Bewässerung, fokussieren sich die Bauarbeiten zu  Beginn auf die Errichtung einer Flutlichtanlage, die noch während der  Saison 2018 in Betrieb genommen werden soll. Die übrigen Bauarbeiten  werden vor allem in der spielfreien Zeit vorgenommen. Insgesamt  investiert die Stadt Bonn 1,5 Millionen Euro, wobei das Land  Nordrhein-Westfalen die Investitionen mit knapp 50 Prozent fördert.

Die Baseball-EM 2019 wird im September 2019 in Bonn und Solingen ausgetragen.

Weitere Informationen zum ersten Spatenstich finden Sie außerdem auf www.bonn.de.