The Orange achieved a measure of vengeance for not only a round-robin defeat to Taiwan, but a heart-breaking loss in Honkbal Week Haarlem with a come-from-behind win in Prague against the East Asian baseballers. Denzel Richardson crushed a solo shot to left center in the eighth for the game-winning run, having put the Netherlands on the board in the third with a RBI-double. Lars Huijer pitched the Dutch into contention with 5.1 one-hit frames, and long-time ace Shairon Martis came out of the pen to fire two hitless, shutout innings for a rare win in relief in the Prague Baseball Week title bout.
Elsewhere, Baseball Czechia took out some frustration with a drubbing of Germany in the third-place game, with Ryan Johnson leading the way. The two-way player mashed a three-run tater in the second, then knocking three more home with a booming double in the third. The designated hitter missed another home run by feet in the sixth as part of 3-for-4, three run, six ribbie day.
Meanwhile, Swiss Baseball took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh, but watched as Croatia scored two in the seventh and four in the eighth for the comeback victory in the Group B bronze matchup. Fynn Himmelsbach tossed five innings for Switzerland, permitting two hits and no unearned runs, but the Croatian bullpen came through with eight frames and three earned runs on six hits, with seven strikeouts. Croatian stalwart José Herrera had a game-winning two-run single.
Finally, Belgium finished a perfect week in Group B at Prague Baseball Week, overcoming a plucky Slovakia for the pool title. Slovakia took a 1-0 lead in the first and held it until the bottom of the sixth, when Drew Janssen and Axel Poesmans knocked RBI-singles. A sudden nine-run explosion in the next frame, fueled by a two-run double by Benjamin Goffaux and back-to-back walks with the bases loaded, ended the game early by mercy rule.
Game wraps by the excellent Ján Jabrocký, are here [link]. Box scores are available here [link].
Group A Results
July 8
Third: Germany 5 – Czech Republic 15 (7)
Final: Netherlands 3 – Taiwan 2
Group B Results
July 8
Third: Switzerland 6 – Croatia 8
Final: Slovakia 1 – Belgium 11 (7)