The drawing of the group stage pairings for the 2023 European Championship took place Saturday morning in Prague, with the hosts Czechia drawn against fellow medal-contenders Spain. Additional highlights include fellow World Baseball Classic entrants Great Britain and 2021 bronze-medalist Italy meeting in Group B, while Germany and the 2021 runners-up Israel will meet in Group D.
Group D also sees Switzerland makings its European Championship debut.
The full pairings include (number indicates finish at the 2021 European Championship):
Group A: Austria (11), Czechia (5), Greece (14), Spain (4)
Group B: Great Britain (6), Hungary, Italy (3), Sweden (12)
Group C: Croatia (7), France (15), Netherlands (1), Ukraine (13)
Group D: Germany (9), Belgium (8), Israel (2), Switzerland
The Netherlands defeated Israel, 9-4, to win the 2021 European Championship, the country’s fourth consecutive title. Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh, the Dutch rallied to score four runs in the inning, and added four more in the eighth, with a Roger Bernadina three-run homer in the seventh and a Dashenko Ricardo two-run home run in the eighth inning punctuating the rally.
The 2023 European Championship in Czechia is scheduled to run from September 24-October 1 at five sites across the country: Blansko, Brno, Ostrava, Prague, and Trebic.