The B-Level European Championship in Vienna, Austria started on Monday with three games. Austria, Poland, Israel, Sweden, Lithuania and Belarus battle at the Spenadlwiese ballpark for a spot in the 2016 European Championship.
Belarus – Israel 1-13 (8)
Israel, which won a C-Level European Championship last year, opened the tournament with a 13-1 win in eight innings over Belarus. It was a close game until Israel scored seven runs combined in the fifth and sixth. Aric Weinberg was a triple shy of the cycle and scored four runs out of the leadoff spot. Oren Gal and Simon Rosenbaum had three RBI each. Rosenbaum also went deep. Dean Kremer, who got drafted by the San Diego Padres last month, struck out ten in six scoreless one-hit innings. Aliaksei Lukashevich took the loss after five solid innings.
Lithuania – Sweden 0-14 (7)
The relegated Swedish team shut out Lithuania 14-0 in seven innings. Five runs in the first and five in the fifth blew the score wide open. Matt Merrifield tripled and drove in five runs. Joel Johnson scored four times. Jakob Claesson issued three hits and three walks in seven scoreless innings for the win. He struck out eight. Eimantas Zickus gave up five runs on seven hits in three frames for the loss.
Poland – Austria 1-13 (8)
Austria dominated its opener against Poland 13-1. After the opening ceremony Austria came out swinging the bats for a quick 4-1 lead after the first. Afterwards both teams exchanged zeroes until Austria pulled away with nine runs in the last three frames. Dominik Loeffler hit a home run, scored twice and drove in three to pace Austria. Dominik Talir and Joachim Frick scored thrice. Christian Tomsich allowed five hits, a run and two walks in seven innings, while striking out seven. Marek Deska was responsible for seven hits, five runs (1 ER) and four base on balls in 5 2/3 innings.
A live stream is available for all games at www.laola.tv
Complete schedule, stats and live play by play are available through www.baseballstats.eu