16 National Teams will compete from Friday 28th of February to Sunday 1st of March 2020, in Vilnius, Lithuania, in the first-ever Baseball5 European Championship.
Belgium has formed a national team for this brand new sport. Last couple of months they have been practicing thoroughly in the Belgium Baseball5 Open and even won 2nd Place in the Valenciennes Baseball5 Tournament this January.
Benjamin De Smet is team manager and will be heading our coed team, which further consist of:
– Laura Bailly
– Norine Chikh
– Julie Kerckhof
– Daniel Lopez Montejo
– Nicolas Havelange
– David Delvenne
– Geoffrey Andries
At the E.C. participating teams will be split into 4 groups:
Group A: Belgium, The Netherlands, Moldova, Sweden
Group B: Belarus, Italy, Latvia, Romania
Group C: Bulgaria, Estonia, Israel, Russia
Group D: Lithuania, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland.
After group play, the tournament will proceed with a single elimination format.
The 2 finalists will advance to the Baseball5 World Cup in Mexico.
Background info
An urban version of baseball softball, Baseball5 is proving popular with schools and all age groups respectively with its fast, fun and simple way to play. Able to be played on any surface, Baseball5 is a mixed-gender discipline that is played without a bat or glove and only a ball, which has allowed the WBSC to exponentially increase accessibility to the sport.
The European Championship will be the first qualifying event to the inaugural Baseball5 World Cup, to be held in Mexico in December of 2020. Europe will qualify two National Teams. The 12-team Baseball5 World Cup will also feature two National Teams from Africa, three each from the Americas and Asia, and one each from Oceania and the host Mexico.
In January of 2020, Baseball5 was confirmed as a medal sport of the 2022 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal, Africa. It will be the first time that a baseball/softball discipline will be featured at a Youth Olympic Games.
All info on:
more Belgian info on: www.lfbbs.be/baseball-5/
