Croatia’s Nada Split defeated Red Wolves Budapest 9-4 in the final of Sunday’s Euro Interleague Baseball championship game in Bratislava, with three runs in the first inning and four more in the third allowing the Croatians to coast to a comfortable victory.
The game began with the teams exchanging home runs, with Balint Piros’ solo homer for Budapest, his sixth of the competition, followed by a three-run blast — off of Piros — by Viktor Amos Belin in the bottom of the frame. Split, who only managed five hits in the game, strung three of them together to tack on four runs in the third, though they were aided by two walks and a defensive miscue in the Budapest infield.
Split starter Andrew Jones pitched a complete game, scattering 10 hits while striking out eight batters, with his teammate Belin named the tournament MVP.
The 2022 four-nation Euro Interleague consisted of six teams from Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia playing a 10-game regular season, with the top four teams qualifying for the championship tournament. Split finished the round robin regular season atop the standings with a 9-1 record and defeated Serbia’s Vojvodina Novi Sad 6-2 in Saturday’s semifinal. Budapest finished the regular season in second place with a 7-3 record and defeated the tournament hosts Apollo Bratislava 15-5 to qualify for Sunday’s championship game.
In Sunday’s other contest, Apollo defeated Vojvodina, 11-3, to claim third place.
For more information on the competition, visit the Euro Interleague Baseball website, or check them out on Facebook.
