British Baseball Federation releases Roster for U23 European Championship

By British Baseball Federation, www.britishbaseball.org

In August, the Great Britain National Team travels to the first ever U23 European Championship. 16 nations will square off in three different countries before gathering in Brno, Czech Republic to compete for the trophy and qualification to the 2018 Baseball World Cup.

The British Baseball Federation is excited to announce the roster for next month’s U23 European Championship.

With no competitions at other age groups, this is the signature event for Great Britain Baseball in 2017. Crucial World Baseball & Softball Confederation (WBSC) ranking points are at stake.

The squad will assemble for final preparations at Farnham Park in early August before travelling to Austria and the Czech Republic for the tournament.

Competition for selection to the roster was fierce. While several players have been ruled out by injury or academic-athletic commitments in the US, National Teams Programme Director Liam Carroll believes that this group can challenge for medals:

“This is a talented and exciting team that is going to excel on the international stage. We have depth at all positions, some dynamic athletes, and a ton of national teams experience at the youth and senior levels.

“It’s great to see so many clubs represented that these players will do proud and I can’t wait for the British Baseball community to get behind them as we compete for a championship.”

This will be the first U23 Euros, following the WBSC expanding the age group from U21 at last year’s World Cup.

Dating back to the previous age range, this will be the first British entry at this level.

16 nations have entered the championship, which offers the most world rankings points of any Confederation of European Baseball (CEB) event this year. While the Czech Republic are the official tournament organisers and will host two of the four groups in Blansko and Brno, a third group will play in Slovakia and a fourth, featuring Great Britain, will play in Wels, Austria.

In addition to the hosts, Great Britain are pitted against Poland and Spain.

Great Britain will play their three Group B games on consecutive days, opening against Austria on 7th August before playing Poland and then Spain. A top two finish is needed to qualify for the Quarter-Finals, where Great Britain will match up with Group A, comprising Belarus, Croatia, Netherlands and Russia. All playoff games will be played in the Czech Republic.

Roster: