The 2024 Baseball European Championship continued on Thursday, and Group Ireland got underway.
Group Serbia:
Hungary 16 – 2 Slovenia (7 innings)
Slovenia held a first-inning lead thanks to an RBI groundout, but the game immediately got out of reach in the 2nd inning when Hungary scored six runs capped off by a grand slam from Graeham Luttor.
Slovenia added one more run at the bottom of the 2nd before
Vincent Temesváry hit a 3-run home run to make it 9-2 in the 3rd inning, causing a mercy rule.
Ádám Piros pitched a complete seven innings for Hungary, giving up two runs on six hits and four walks while striking out 11 to get the win. Hungary moves to 3-0 while Slovenia moves to 2-2.
Slovakia 12 – 1 Turkey (7 innings)
Slovakia started the scoring in the first inning with an RBI single from Mário Gottschall to take an early 1-0 lead before two more runs came in by a sacrifice fly from Matej Rudohradský and a wild pitch.
Turkey got a run back from an RBI Single by Ertugrul Ercan.
But Slovakia also added one run in the second and three runs in the third before putting it away because of the mercy rule in the sixth, thanks to a three-run home run by Martin Gieci. Juraj Bartók took home the win, pitching five innings, giving up one run on three hits while striking out nine. Slovakia moves to 1-2, and Turkey to 0-3.
Hungary (3-0) takes on Turkey (0-3) on July 26th at 5:00 am EST.
Slovakia (1-2) takes on Serbia (2-1) on July 26th at 10:00 am EST.
Group Poland:
Lithuania 15 – 5 Romania (7 innings)
Vytas Valincius started the game for Lithuania with a 2-run home run in the first inning in a game they would never trail. Later in the 4th, Martynas Sadzevicius and Domas Kamandulis would hit 2-run home runs to make it 6-0 before George George got one back for Romania in the bottom frame with a sacrifice fly. Thanks to an RBI Double from Iulian Serban, Romania would make it 6-4 Lithuania.
However, Lithuania would score five runs in the 6th and four runs in the seventh to make it impossible to continue, even with Romania scoring two runs in the bottom of the 7th. Gytis Morkūnas pitched a great win and was awarded the win for Lithuania, tossing five innings, giving up three runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six. Lithuania moves to 2-0, and Romania to 1-1.
Poland 7 – 4 Finland
In a closer game, the scoring began in the 4th inning when Arthur Kowara hit a 2-run home run for Poland. They struck again in the sixth, scoring three and then two in the 7th to make it 7-0 before the game got interesting for Finland.
Andreas Fopp hit an RBI Single in the 8th to make it 7-1. Then, in the 9th, Finland scored three runs, but Dominik Olech was able to limit it to three to give Poland the win.
Mateusz Szustek pitched eight innings, allowing only three runs on three hits while walking four and striking out five. Poland moves to 1-1, and Finland moves to 0-2.
Finland (0-2) plays Lithuania (2-0) on July 26th at 6:00 am EST.
Poland (1-1) plays Romania (1-1) on July 26th at noon EST.
Group Ireland:
Norway 14 – 3 Bulgaria (8 innings)
Norway dominated from the first two innings, scoring six runs immediately and four more in the fifth. They would only give up one run in the 6th and two in the 7th, where hitting was more of a talking point than the pitching.
However, Benjamin Davis took the win, pitching two innings, only giving up one hit and striking out a batter, after Lars Ligouri started the game, pitching 4.1 innings, only giving up one hit and one walk while striking out four. Ligouri also went 2-3 as a hitter.
Panayot Zhaltov took the loss for Bulgaria, pitching eight innings but giving up 14 runs on 13 hits and six walks but striking out 7. Norway moves to 1-0, and Bulgaria to 0-1.
Ireland 2 – 0 Austria
The only runs of this game would be scored by Ireland in the 2nd inning thanks to a David Gallagher RBI Double and a Brendan Flaherty Sacrifice Fly to bring in those two runs.
Pitching was the story for both sides, starting with Ireland’s Kealan Smithers, who collected the win going seven innings, only giving up two hits and two walks, and striking out 12. Christian Tomsich was equally impressive for Austria, only giving up two runs on five hits while striking out nine.
Ireland moves to 1-0, and Austria to 0-1.
Austria (0-1) plays Norway (1-0) at 7:30 am EST.
Bulgaria (0-1) plays Ireland (1-0) at 12:30 pm EST.
All Baseball European Championship games will be streamed live through www.baseballeurope.tv.
Live play-by-play is available for all games through www.wbsceurope.org.
