The first round at the European Championship in Regensburg started on Friday with a postponement. Rain led to the cancellation of the planned 11am matchup between Sweden and Great Britain. It will be made up on Saturday morning.
The weather improved and the full infield tarp at the Armin-Wolf-Arena made the other two games possible. In the afternoon defending champion Italy defeated Belgium 12-7 in front of 307 people. The red devils put some pressure on Italy in the eighth, cutting the deficit to 7-8. But Marco Mazzieri removed switch pitcher Pat Venditte for Tiago Da Silva. And his ace shut the door. Alessandro Vaglio and Gabriele Ermini went a combined 6-for-12 with five RBI. Alberto Mineo and Alex Sambucci connected for solo home runs. Belgium’s Dennis de Quindt collected three RBI. Thomas de Wolf was 4-for-5.
In the evening host Germany suffered a 2-3 loss in front of an official attendance of 1,121 to a strong French team, which continued its good play after the Yoshida Challenge in Senart. Luke Sommer looked unhittable retiring the first 12 batters he faced and Germany led 2-0 midway through the fifth. But then Rene Leveret connected for a monster home run over the scoreboard to put France on the board. It didn’t stop there as two more scored in the frame on a groundout and a RBI double by Jacques Boucheron. Owen Ozanich picked up the win with five solid innings.
After the rainout on Friday, four games will be on the schedule on Saturday. It starts with the make-up game between Sweden and Great Britain at 9.30am. In the second part of the twin bill Sweden faces Italy at 1pm. At 4pm Great Britain takes on France. In the evening Germany hopes to rebound against Belgium.
Live Play by Play at www.baseballstats.eu
Official Website with Livestream of all games
Official Facebook Account of the Confederation of European Baseball
Official Twitter Account of the Confederation of European Baseball (#eurobaseball14)
Photo by Walter Keller