The first round at the European Championship Juniors U18 Qualifier in Varazdin and Karlovac, Croatia ended on Thursday. Great Britain and Lithuania advanced to the semi-finals from Pool A, Croatia and Belarus from Pool B.
Lithuania opened day three in Varazdin with an 18-3 win over Hungary. They scored eight runs in the second and five in the third to blow the score wide open early on. Viktoras Ratkevicius struck out eight in three solid innings on the mound and went 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBI at the plate. Erik Schwartz took the loss.
With the victory Lithuania had improved to 2-1 in Pool A. In the second game of the day Great Britain beat Switzerland 15-6. All three teams became 2-1 and in the tie-breaker the Swiss squad took the short straw. Despite the final result, it was a close game. Switzerland took a quick 3-0 lead and was up 3-2 midway through the fifth. But then Great Britain’s offense came alive and put the game into the books. Richard Brereton Jr. went 4-for-5 with a home run, a double and seven RBI. Jonathan Fretheim scored four times. Matthew Tarran got the save after three scoreless innings of one-hit, one-walk relief. Alexander Bruce took the loss. Conrad McCarthy homered and drove in three for the Swiss.
In the afternoon game in Karlovac Belarus edged out Slovakia 6-5 to advance to the semi-finals. Three runs in the bottom of the eighth decided the outcome. A pair of errors helped with two outs to turn the game around. Ilya Dziamchuk scored twice. Mikalai Vasilyeu pitched 3 1/3 innings of one-hit relief to pick up the win. Juraj Janov took the loss.
In the fourth game of the day Croatia celebrated its third straight shutout. They defeated Poland 15-0 to finish the preliminary phase with a perfect 3-0 record. Darko Kvaternik struck out a tournament-high 15 batters in six scoreless innings. He allowed just two hits and two walks. Antonio Horvatic and Aleksandar Kruhek hit a pair of home runs and combined for seven RBI. Viktor Amos Belin crossed the plate five times.
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