The preliminary phase at the Qualifiers for the European Cup ended on Friday. The finals will be played on Saturday. The winners of each event will play a playoff tournament against the sixth-place finisher from the European Cups ‘A’ in September.
In Antwerp the final will be between the hosting Brasschaat Braves and the Leksand Lumberjacks from Sweden. In the first game on Friday Leksand clinched the finals spot with a 12-11 thriller in 11 innings over Nada Split. It was a back-and-forth slugfest, which was decided by a Per Sjoers run on a RBI fielder’s choice to the pitcher. Dario Colovic scored five runs for the Croatians. Jadran Dadic drove in five. Sjoers had five hits for the Swedes, Tyler Overstreet drove in four and picked up the win. In the second game Robert Sedin had a game for the ages, hitting three home runs and driving in seven to lead the Zurich Challengers to a 15-14 win over the Vienna Wanderers. The game was decided by a wild pitch in the top of the tenth.
In Athens the Sofia Blues faced the Olympic sports school 42 from Moscow in a finals preview in the first match. Moscow prevailed 5-4 on a walk-off RBI single by Dmitry Semenov in the bottom of the ninth. Sofia had erased a 1-4 deficit in the process, but wasn’t able to push another run over the plate in the last three frames of the game. The real final will be played on Saturday afternoon. In game two Olimpija Karlovac defeated Maroussi 2004 10-3. Overcoming a short rain delay they scored seven runs in the first two innings and cruised to the win. Slobodan Gales tripled and scored three times. Robert Crevar collected four RBI.
In Brest host Brest Zubrs and the Vienna Metrostars are in the championship game. Both teams were already qualified prior to the last first-round day. In game one Centaury Warsaw beat the Angels Trnava 7-4 for their first win of the event, moving into fourth place in the standings. Poul Couillard went the distance. In the second match Zubrs lost 3-9 against third-place holder Kaunas Lituanica. Four players scored twice for Kaunas. Renatas Skukauskas and Audrius Beliauskas issued just three runs in nine innings.
In Stockholm a pair of semi-finals were played on Friday. In the first the North Stars Moscow downed the Bern Cardinals 8-3. They scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to turn a 2-1 nail-biter into clear win. Nikita Lobanov out-dueled Ernesto Pereira. Alexander Toropov scored twice and drove in two. They now will face Stockholm in the final on Saturday. The Monarchs defeated Vilnius BC 5-2 and remained undefeated in the Qualifier. Three runs in the bottom of the eighth decided the outcome. Jakob Claesson struck out seven in nine complete innings. Magnus Pilegard homered and Matt Merrifield drove in two.
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