Austria and Sweden will play in the championship game of the B-Level European Championship in Vienna, Austria on Saturday. The game will be played in front of a sold-out crowd at 5pm. With three games on Friday the first round ended. Sweden overcame a deficit with a thrilling ninth inning to defeat Israel and advancing to the final. In the evening game Austria edged out Belarus from behind to join the Scandinavians. Earlier in the day Poland had shut out Lithuania.
Poland – Lithuania 11-0 (7)
The previously undefeated Polish team defeated Lithuania 11-0 in seven innings. Marek Deska struck out 13 batters in a complete game two-hit shutout. On offense Poland took a quick 2-0 lead in the second and added five runs in the fourth and four in the sixth. Lukasz Nolbrzak went 3-for-3 with two doubles and three RBI to lead Poland’s offense. Eimantas Zickus got charged with his second loss of the week in his fourth appearance in five games.
Israel – Sweden 8-9
Sweden saw an early lead vanish and then overcame a deficit in the ninth before stopping a late rally to prevail 9-8 over Israel. Sweden got on the board first, taking a 2-0 lead in the fourth. Israel countered with three runs in the fifth. It went back and forth afterwards. Sweden trailed 4-5 entering the ninth, but scored five runs to get up in front 9-5. Peter Johannessen and Nicklas Melin had two-run doubles during the rally. Israel quickly loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the frame. Two runs scored on a couple of wild pitches until two fly outs provided the first two outs. Following a RBI single by Simon Rosenbaum, Nate Fish grounded out to short for the final out of the game. Melin finished the game with four RBI. Magnus Pilegard reached base five times, as Sweden pounded out 14 hits in the contest. Eitan Maoz drove in three for Israel. Jakob Claesson threw 145 pitches to go the distance, nearly blowing the lead in the ninth. Shlomo Lipetz relieved San Diego Padres draftee Dean Kremer in the eighth and took the loss.
Austria – Belarus 14-8
In the evening Austria needed to win to reach the finals. They needed to overcome deficits of 0-3 and 5-7 in the process, taking control of the game with a six-run sixth. Austria prevailed 14-8 over Belarus in the end. Richard Alzinger homered, scored three times and drove in three. Dominik Loeffler had three hits, two runs and three RBI. Siarhei Sokal went 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBI for Belarus. Stefan Ludescher picked up the win in relief of Paul Astl. Werner Harrasser closed it out. Andrej Los got charged with his third loss of the week.
Final First Round Standings
|
Pos
|
Team
|
GP
|
WO
|
LO
|
AVG
|
GB
|
|
1
|
 Austria |
5
|
4
|
1
|
800
|
0
|
|
2
|
 Sweden |
5
|
4
|
1
|
800
|
0
|
|
3
|
 Israel |
5
|
3
|
2
|
600
|
1
|
|
4
|
 Lithuania |
5
|
2
|
3
|
400
|
2
|
|
5
|
 Belarus |
5
|
1
|
4
|
200
|
3
|
|
6
|
 Poland |
5
|
1
|
4
|
200
|
3
|
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