By PONY Baseball and Softball
WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania – PONY Baseball and Softball is proud to announce, for the first time, it will be holding a Bronco (12U) European Zone Championships. Hosted by El Llano Baseball Club in Gijon, Spain, six teams (four from Spain and two from Great Britain) will battle it out in nine games over three days to claim the title of European Zone Champions.
“For PONY, it is another step forward to extend to one more age category within Europe,” said Jan Bagin, PONY European Director. “For baseball in Europe, the Bronco tournament is another opportunity to play exciting and good quality games. Europe cares about youth development and PONY is pleased to cooperate with the European Baseball Confederation and support the CEB effort.”
Two weekends ago, El Llano hosted the first-ever Pony and Colt European Zone Qualifiers to much success. In the Pony (14U) category, Academie de Bordeaux (France) defeated Los Amigos London (Great Britain) 3-2 in the championship game, and in the Colt (16U) category, Trasnos BC (Spain) defeated Academie de Bordeaux (France) 5-4 in the championship game. Both teams received automatic qualifying bids to April’s Pony and Colt European Zone Championships in Prague, Czech Republic.
“It is a great pleasure for us to host the first-ever Bronco Championship,” said Roberto Diaz, El Llano Baseball Club President. “It’s a big honor to have it in our city, Gijon. 2016 is our club’s 30th anniversary and this is a nice prize for us. We hope to grow this tournament quickly and have a great Bronco Championship in Gijon. It will be a very important competition for Europe and Spain in the near future. I’m sure about that.”
While the winner of this year’s Bronco European Zone Championships will not receive automatic qualification to the 2017 Bronco World Series, PONY officials and the board of directors are exploring the options for the zone’s entry in future years.