The second day of the first round at the Qualifier European Championship C-Pool in Ljubljana, Slovenia is in the books. Three of the scheduled four games were played. The contest between Hungary and Ireland got postponed due to rain and will be made up at 5pm on Thursday.
On Wednesday Romania (2-0) defeated Norway (0-2) 11-4 in Golovec, led by strong pitching, which allowed just two hits in the game. Sergiu Susanu struck out seven in five scoreless innings of one-hit, one-walk relief to pick up the win. Klaus Nicolici drove in four. Eduard Pirvu and Andrei Mirescu scored three times apiece. Robert Rust took the loss, giving up four hits, five runs (3 ER) and six walks in 4 1/3 frames.
In Jezica Finland (1-1) beat Latvia (0-2) 14-4 in nine innings. Finland scored five runs in the first and six in the ninth to blow the score wide open. Olli Tolppanen pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief to get the win and drove in three at the plate. Sergio Fernandez stole three bases and crossed home plate four times. Timo Liiri collected three runs. Kristaps Aldins scored thrice for Latvia. He also pitched eight solid innings to keep his team in the game after the horrible first. Kristaps Duselis had two RBI.
In the evening game at Jezica Israel (2-0) shut out Slovenia (1-1) 9-0. Shlomo Lipetz struck out ten batters in a complete game shutout, conceding six hits and a walk. Offensively Aric Weinberg went 2-for-5 with a bases clearing double and a three-run home run. Simon Rosembaum also went deep to drive in two. Luka Kreitmayer got charged with eight hits, seven runs (6 ER) and three walks in 5 1/3 innings to take the loss.