The B-Pool European Championship in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria started on Monday with three games. The stunner of the day was probably the 17-5 win of Serbia over Ireland. Serbia took a quick 5-0 lead through two innings and then blew the score up with six runs in the fifth and five in the seventh. A grand slam by Conner Tomasic ended the game. He also scored four runs in the game. Michael McGee had a grand slam for Ireland.
In the other games Israel celebrated a 14-7 win over Greece. Mitch Glasser, Blake Gailen and Noam Calisar hit home runs for Israel. Dimitrios Kourtis went deep twice for Greece. Host Bulgaria lost 0-21 to Russia. Andrei Lobanov struck out nine in five scoreless innings for the win. 12 runs in the fourth put the game out of reach. Denis Leonov, Viacheslav Vasilev and Frank Bulte Pinya homered.
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.