The first decisions at the U15 European Championship in Chartres and Rouen, France already have been in the books after day two at the preliminary round on Wednesday. Defending champion Germany reached the semi-final as number one seed from Group A following a 18-2 win over Lithuania. In Group B France won a crucial matchup against the Czech Republic 9-5 and also already can start planning for the semi-finals on Friday. Austria defeated Slovenia 13-10 and faces the Czech team on Thursday in a matchup, which will determine the second semi-finalist from Group B. Russia and Lithuania square off in Group A to determine second place behind Germany.
Slovenia – Austria 10-13
Austria picked up their first win in two games at the U15 European Championship with a 13-10 slugfest against Slovenia. Five runs in the third gave the Austrians a 6-3 lead. After extending the gape to 7-4 midway through the fifth, Slovenia added seven runs in the bottom of the same frame and got up in front 10-7. However Austria tied the game in the sixth and added three more runs in the seventh to prevail in the end. Justin Fürböck collected three hits and three RBI, including a crucial two-run double in the seventh. Henry Fisher tied the game with a two-run double in the sixth and drove in five runs overall. He also pitched the last two frames for the win. Zan Primozic had a better day at the plate (four RBI) than on the mound (taking the loss in relief).
France – Czech Republic 9-5
France stunned last year’s finalist Czech Republic with a 9-5 victory in the Rouen game on Wednesday. Especially in the beginning the tournament host dominated, scoring six runs in the first two frames. Afterwards the squad cruised to the win. Pierre Emmanu Planes, Pierre Monbeig and Louis Brainville each scored twice. Lilian Amoros allowed three hits, three runs (2 ER) and four walks in four innings to pick up the win. Pierre Monbeig closed it out for the save. Ondrej Kalandra crossed the plate two times for the Czech team. Tomas Zachoval gave up five hits, six runs (2 ER) and a base on balls in two innings to take the loss.
Lithuania – Germany 2-18 (4)
Reigning title holder Germany blew by Lithuania 18-2 in four innings. They scored eight runs in the top of the first and five each in the third and four to secure an easy victory. It was their second in as many games. Ian Post tripled twice and drove in six runs. Maxi Siegert-Bomhard scored three times and collected three RBI. Germany’s starter Marco Iberle ran into some control problems after the long top half of the frame and was replaced with no outs in the first. Elian Gentner, Robert Blesing and Yoshua Steigert issued just one more hit the rest of the way. Martynas Sadzevicius got charged with the loss, surrendering three hits, five runs (4 ER) and two walks.
Schedule for Day 3
Live streaming is available for all games from Chartres at http://www.cmin.tv/ Live play by play, box scores and all statistics are available through the CEB competition website www.baseballstats.eu. A dedicated Facebook page was launched as well is available through www.facebook.com/eurobaseball15U2016.