Day eight of the U12 European Championship 2018 in Budapest, Hungary featured two exciting semi-finals and the first set of classification games. Italy and Czech Republic will play the final on Sunday and by winning their respective semifinals they are now qualified for the 2019 WBSC U12 Baseball World Cup in Tainan.
Italy edged out a surprisingly strong team from Russia 5-4. Russia led 3-1 and 4-3, but Italy eventually got the lead for good and held on with strong pitching in the end. Afterwards the Czech Republic turned around an early 0-3 deficit against the Netherlands and beat them 10-5.
In the classification games Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and Great Britain prevailed. On Sunday prior to the final France and Germany will play for fifth place, Russia and the Netherlands for third.
Results Day 8:
First Part of Final Standings:
Schedule Final Day:
Complete schedule, results, box scores, statistics and live play by play are available at www.baseballstats.eu.