While the final round in Brno saw Italy and the Netherlands reach the Gold Medal Game on Sunday (3pm CET, live on TV), the consolation round ended in Trebic on Saturday at the European Championship 2014.
Final Round in Brno:
The Netherlands are back in the Gold Medal Game at the 2014 European Championship. The record title holder prevailed 14-5 over France to advance to the final on Sunday. On Friday afternoon they scored five runs in the second and didn’t stop there to down the team of manager Eric Gagne. France dropped to 1-3 in the final round, the Dutch improve to 4-0. Read the full recap.
Spain rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to edge out Germany 4-3 on Friday evening on the second game day of the final round in Brno, Czech Republic. With the win Spain has a chance to win the bronze medal on Saturday against France. Germany is out of the race for the top three. Read the full recap.
Italy is joining the Netherlands in the Gold Medal Game of the 2014 European Championship on Sunday in Brno. They remained undefeated in the tournament with a dominating 9-1 victory over host Czech Republic. They took the lead in the first and blew the score open with five runs in the third en route to the win. They improved to 4-0 in the final round, while the Czech Republic dropped to 1-3. Read the full recap.
Final Round Standings:
1) Netherlands 4-0
1) Italy 4-0
3) Spain 2-2
4) Czech Republic 1-3
5) France 1-3
6) Germany 0-4
On Saturday the bronze medal will be decided between Spain, Czech Republic and France. Spain and France face each other in the 11am game. Afterwards host Czech Republic squares off against Germany in front of a live Czech TV audience. In the evening Italy and the Netherlands meet in a finals preview determining home field advantage for Saturday.
Consolation Round in Trebic:
Meanwhile the consolation round got concluded with two games in Trebic on Saturday. In the morning Joakim Klasson pitched a three-hit complete game shutout to lead Sweden to a 2-0 win in a swift two hours over Greece. Panagiotis Sikaras struck out 12 in nine innings, but still ended up with the loss. Magnus Pilegard and Adam Sorgi scored the two Swedish runs in the opening frame.
In the afternoon Great Britain shut out Croatia 9-0. Croatia managed just one hit in nine innings, when pinch hitter Manojlov singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Jacob Esch had started for GB and was perfect through seven innings. When he left after throwing 95 pitches, Alex Webb entered and promptly gave up one-out walk to end the perfect game bid. Chris Berset hit a home run. Mitch Evans went 2-for-4 with a triple, a double and three RBI. Jimmy Summer got charged with the loss, surrendering five runs on eight hits and three walks.
Consolation Round Standings:
9) Great Britain 3-0
10) Greece 1-2*
11) Sweden 1-2*
12) Croatia 1-2*
*Ranking based on TQB after games between the three tied teams.
With the consolation round results in the books, the two relegated teams are known. Sweden and Croatia have to go to the B-Pool as 11th and 12th ranked teams in the final standings, having lost the TQB tiebreaker against 10th ranked Greece. All three teams were tied 1-2. Great Britain is finishing in ninth place with a 3-0 record in the consolation round.
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Photo by Mike Hofmann