The B-Level European Championship in Vienna, Austria continued with three exciting games on Tuesday. Austria, Israel and Sweden all improved to 2-0 on day two of the first round. Austria and Israel will meet in a key matchup on Wednesday evening.
Sweden – Belarus 10-9 (10)
Sweden needed to win a tie-breaking tenth innings 4-3 to prevail 10-9 over Belarus in the morning game at the Prater in Vienna. A dropped flyball by Matt Merrifield in right field with two outs in the bottom of the tenth plated the two decisive runs in the game. Aliaksei Lukashevich had cleared the bases with a double in the top of the frame to give Belarus a 9-6 lead. Joel Johnson homered and scored three times for Sweden. Nicklas Melin picked up the win after three innings in relief. Andrej Los go charged with the win.
Israel – Poland 8-6
Israel handed Poland a heart-wrenching 8-6 defeat thanks to a ninth-inning, one-out walk-off grand slam by Eitan Maoz. A balk call with a runner on third had given Poland a 6-4 lead in the top of the ninth. Maoz finished the game with five RBI. Aric Weinberg tripled twice for Israel. David Weiss went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI. Przemyslaw Paluch and Piotr Mikoljczyk had two RBI apiece for Poland. Shlomo Lipetz picked up the win in relief of Alon Leichman. John Dobkowski came in with two runners on in the ninth and gave up the game-winning home run.
Austria – Lithuania 9-7
Austria erased an early 0-4 deficit to beat Lithuania 9-7 in the evening game in Vienna. They scored all nine runs between the second and the fifth. Joachim Frick had one of four Austrian doubles in the game and crossed the plate three times. Peter Ferak and Dominik Loeffler scored twice. Jan Alteneder drove in two. Stefan Ludescher received the win in relief of Clemens Cichocki. Edvarda Matusevicius struck out ten in 4 2/3 innings, but still ended up with the loss.
A live stream is available for all games at www.laola1.tv
Complete schedule, stats and live play by play are available through www.baseballstats.eu