2023 European Championship Group Stage Draw; Netherlands Enter Tournament With Four Consecutive Titles
The drawing of the group stage pairings for the 2023 European Championship took place Saturday morning in Prague, with the hosts Czechia drawn against fellow medal-contenders Spain. Additional highlights include fellow World Baseball Classic entrants Great Britain and 2021 bronze-medalist Italy meeting in Group B, while Germany and the 2021 runners-up Israel will meet in Group D.
Group D also sees Switzerland makings its European Championship debut.
The full pairings include (number indicates finish at the 2021 European Championship):
Group A: Austria (11), Czechia (5), Greece (14), Spain (4)
Group B: Great Britain (6), Hungary, Italy (3), Sweden (12)
Group C: Croatia (7), France (15), Netherlands (1), Ukraine (13)
Group D: Germany (9), Belgium (8), Israel (2), Switzerland
The 2023 European Championship will see 16 teams competing from September 24-October 1 in Czechia. The Netherlands (Group C) enter the tournament having won four straight European titles. Credit: WBSC Europe / Twitter.
The Netherlands defeated Israel, 9-4, to win the 2021 European Championship, the country’s fourth consecutive title. Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh, the Dutch rallied to score four runs in the inning, and added four more in the eighth, with a Roger Bernadina three-run homer in the seventh and a Dashenko Ricardo two-run home run in the eighth inning punctuating the rally.
The 2023 European Championship in Czechia is scheduled to run from September 24-October 1 at five sites across the country: Blansko, Brno, Ostrava, Prague, and Trebic.
