Belgium in U18 Baseball European Championship 13 – 20 August 2022

update
Belgium retains top 10 position in U18 E.C. Baseball A-Pool

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Twelve Junior Baseball National Teams will compete in the 2022 U18 European Baseball Championship, which will be played from Saturday August 13 to Saturday August 20 in different venues in the Czech Republic.

The Netherlands are the defending champions, having defeated Italy 6-2 in last year’s U18 European Championship. Germany finished in third place after a 10-0 shutout over Spain in the bronze medal matchup. For the first time 12 countries will be in the tournament. Two just qualified this summer, as Great Britain and Belgium won the U18 European Baseball Championship Qualifiers in July to advance to the main tournament.

During the preliminary round the 12 teams are split into two groups of six each.
Group A: Austria, Spain, France, Great Britain, Lithuania, Netherlands
Group B: Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy

From Saturday to Thursday a preliminary round robin will be played with the top two teams of each group advancing to the semi-finals on Friday. The grand finale is set for Saturday 20 August at 6pm at MBS stadium in Brno.

All games will be streamed live. Links to the live streaming, live scoring, schedule, roster and stats can be found through:
www.wbsceurope.org/en/events/2022-u-18-european-baseball-championship/home

Introducing the teams in Group B at the U18 Baseball European Championship

The best-ranked team in Group B according to last year’s tournament is Italy, which won the silver medal. In total, the team has 28 medals from the junior championships, including 13 gold and silver medals and 2 bronze medals. The Italians are 17th in the WBSC rankings.

The 2021 bronze medal team, Germany, is also in the same group. It holds three third places so far and is 18th in the WBSC rankings.

Belgium won their participation in the Euro in the Czechia only this year in the qualification in Trnava, topping Ukraine 6-5 in the final. Belgium did not compete in the Championship last years but has a historic silver medal from 1980 and bronzes from 1979 and 1992. The Belgians are currently 24th in the world rankings.

Israel is still waiting for a medal from the European Championships in this age category, the best finish is 7th, unlike the senior category, in which a silver medal and the one European ticket for the Tokyo Olympics were won. Israel is 20th in the WBSC rankings.

The lowest ranked team in the tournament is Ireland, in 41st place. At the U18 European Championships, the best ranking so far was 6th, and they did not play in the 2021 tournament.

The Czech team is certainly looking forward to competing in a home environment in Ostrava. The Czechs finished 6th in the losers’ bracket at the last tournament, but have a total of seven valuable metals from the European Championship for this age category, the last one, a bronze, was won in 2018.

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Selection E.C. 2022

Name	Club	Province	Position
Beeckmans Tom	Merchtem Cats	Vlaams-Brabant	P-IF
Boermans Jens	Brasschaat Braves	Antwerpen	C
Borchardt Quinten	WBA	Oost-Vlaanderen	P-OF
Clesse Taschi	MSG Phoenix	Waals-Brabant	Utility
Collazos-Munoz Natheo	MSG Phoenix	Waals-Brabant	P
Dassy Noah	MSG Phoenix	Waals-Brabant	Utility
De Boey Robbe	Brasschaat Braves	Antwerpen	P-IF
Elbers Warre	USA	USA	IF
Fatihi Ayoub	Borgerhout Squirrels	Antwerpen	OF
Hendrickx Zane	Hoboken Pioneers	Antwerpen	P-OF
Mostaert Nando	Deurne Spartans	Antwerpen	IF
Muyldermans Julien	MSG Phoenix	Waals-Brabant	C-IF
Pirlot Victor	MSG Phoenix	Waals-Brabant	P
Spurgeon Ken	Brussels Kangaroos	Brussel	C-IF
Tiliakos Vegas	Hoboken Pioneers	Antwerpen	C-OF
Vandervelden Viktor	Gent Knights	Oost-Vlaanderen	P-OF
Van Landuyt Ruben	Hoboken Pioneers	Antwerpen	P
Yonchev Martin	MSG Phoenix	Vlaams-Brabant	P-OF
Staff	Role
Hendrickx Sven	Managere/ Head coach
Boermans Dave	Coach
Beeckmans Kris	Coach
Flynn Jamie	Coach
De Jaegher Gwendy	Logistics