Israel and Russia remained on collision course for the final at the B-Pool European Championship in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Russia needed just seven innings to defeat Ireland 13-3, improving to 3-0 in the competition. Denis Leonov struck out 12 in the complete game. David Castillo hit his third home run of the week and drove in four.
Israel then followed suit and shut out Bulgaria 8-0 for their third win in as many games. Matt Soren and two relievers combined for a two-hitter. Jake Rosenberg hit a grand slam. In the third game of the day Greece captured their first win of the tournament with a 9-5 win over Serbia.
Israel and Russia will meet on Thursday in their first-round matchup.
Results:
|
Wednesday 3rd July
|
||||||||
| 07 |
10:00
|
 SERBIA |
 GREECE |
5 – 9 |
 |
|||
| 08 |
13:30
|
 RUSSIA |
 IRELAND |
13 – 3 | 7 |
|
| 09 |
17:00
|
 ISRAEL |
 BULGARIA |
8 – 0 |
|
The winner of the B-Pool European Championship in Blagoevgrad faces the winner of the B-Pool European Championship in Trnava in a playoff series at the end of the month, looking to qualify for the European Championship in September. A complete schedule and live play by play are available at www.baseballstats.eu.