Group B: France – Croatia
Croatia 001 000 1 2 1 France 240 253 16 8 0
France took advantage of wild pitching en route to beat Croatia 16-1 in six innings in their first game at the European Championship. The game in Group B was played in Nieuw-Vennep. France didn’t waste any time and led 6-0 after two frames and blew the score wide open with ten runs between the fourth and the sixth.
The French national team needed just eight hits to plate 16 runs, as they draw a whopping 12 walks in the contest. Rene Leveret drove in four, Frederic Hanvi three. Maxime Lefevre, Felix Brown and Norbert Jongerius scored four runs apiece. Andrija Tomic tripled in the third and came around to score the lone run for Croatia.
On the mound Leonel Cespedes issued just three hits, a run and three walks in six innings to pick up the win. He struck out nine. Franko Vrlic surrendered three hits, six runs (5 ER) and three base on balls in 1 2/3 frames to take the loss.