The Qualifier for the European Championship Juniors U18 in Varazdin and Karlovac, Croatia got started on Tuesday with four games.
The tournament started off with a five-inning no-hitter. Great Britain shut out Hungary 15-0 behind a pair of seven-run innings. Richard Brereton Junior went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI to pace the offense. Matthew Tarran issued just three walks in five otherwise perfect innings en route to the win. He struck out nine. Akos Balasko took the loss.
Game two was much closer, as Poland edged out Slovakia 10-9. Poland took the lead for good after a back-and-forth battle with a three-run sixth. They added three more runs and then had to fight off a four-run come back rally by Slovakia in the top of the ninth. Martin Mahavy and Simon Kuban hit home runs for Slovakia. Mateusz Dembski had three hits and four RBI for the Polish squad.
In Karlovac Switzerland prevailed 10-9 over Lithuania. They broke a 4-4 tie with three runs in the bottom of the fifth. They scored three much-needed insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh. Lithuania tried to rally in the end, but it was too little to turn the game around. Alexander Bruce went 3-for-4 with three runs at the plate and pitched four innings in relief to pick up the win. Ado Aleksandravicius had four hits and three RBI for the Lithuania squad.
In the evening match back in Varazdin Croatia defeated Belarus 10-0 in seven innings. Franko Vrlic struck out 12 in seven three-hit innings and scored four runs for the host of the Qualifier. His battery mate Andrija Tomic tripled and drove in four. Uladzisla Barashenka had to settle for the loss.
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