The Cadets' European Championship in Brno is over and ended with a victory of the Czech national team, France is second, The Netherlands is third.
The final game had to be interrupted due to the weather in the middle of the fifth inning and the score of 4:4. Very heavy rain at The City Baseball Stadium caused the players and the fans to hide under a roof. According to the rules, Czech was pronounced as the winner of the game by the technical delegate of the CEB. This decision was made because of the high score victory of the Czech team in the preliminary group (19:3).
The final game itself started better for the Czech team which was able to fill up the bases and score a first run of the game in the first inning. But the starting pitch for France, Esteban Briones, was able to face more pressure. The Czech defence with a starting pitcher Matyáš Landa in lead wasn't making any errors and didn't let France push the game in the first two innings.The French offense was finally seen at the top of the third inning when they hit two singles in a row and filled up the first and the third base on one out. After a series of Czech errors and more hits, France scored four runs. Czechs filled up all the bases again and scored two runs after a hit by Pavel Jozek at the bottom of the inning. Following that, Jozek ruled the pitching mound and Czechs were able to attack the score again. The equalizing run was scored by Ventruba. He went into the game with a double hit after a self-sacrifice hit by Moravec. France was able to still play their offense in the fifth inning but kept the score 4:4. Then the weather won this baseball game.
Alessia Cicconi was the main umpire of the final game, Mojmír Jankovič was the base umpire.
The bronze medal game between The Netherlands and Italy came before the final itself. Both teams were most probably thinking of the finals but they didn't manage their semifinal games with Czechia or France, respectively. They already faced each other in group B in Trnava and Italy clearly won. However, the Dutch team set off against its rival without any respect and started leading 2:0. The turnover for the Italian team came in the third inning. Two walks and three good hits brought three runs to the Italian side as well as a change of the Dutch starting pitcher. Unfortunately, that was the last joy from runs for the Italian team. The Netherlands answered with a run scored by Mercado right after that and balanced the score. They added one run in both the fifth and the sixth inning and entered the last inning with a score of 5:3. Italians started their offense badly - a strikeout and a ground ball meant two outs. Dutch coach changed the pitcher after one walk. Amarensio Franka dealt with the defence with Edoardo Cornelli easily and The Netherlands could celebrate the bronze medals.
The final standings:
1. Czech Republic
2. France
3. The Netherlands
3. Italy
4. Germany
5. Slovakia
6. Austria