Italy has won the title at the European Cadets Championship in Brno and Trebic, Czech Republic. In the championship game on Saturday evening they edged out host Czech Republic with a 9-8 victory. Five runs in the fifth inning erased a 0-4 deficit. Four more runs in the sixth sealed the deal before the Czech team tried to come back in the seventh. But consecutive strikeouts by Gabriele Quattrini stopped a four-run rally and saved the win for Italy. Giovanni Garbella cleared the bases with an inside the park grand slam homerun. Quattrini drove in two. Ondrej Satoria collected three hits and three runs for the Czech team. Earlier on Saturday Italy had defeated arch rival Netherlands 8-3 in the semi-finals. The Czech team needed nine innings to down Germany, which hadn’t lost in the first three games this week. Austria and Russia won the two scheduled classification round games.
Results:
Saturday, July 23:
Semi-Finals:
Italy – Netherlands 8-3 Box score
Germany – Czech Republic 7-8 (9) Box score
Finals:
Italy – Czech Republic 8-7 Box score
Classification Games:
Bulgaria – Austria 10-11 Box score
Sweden – Russia 1-5 Box score
Final Standings:
1.) Italy
2.) Czech Republic
3.) Germany
3.) Netherlands
5.) Russia
6.) Sweden
7.) Austria
8.) Bulgaria