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.