By Jason Daniels. It has been a bumper year for Czech baseball, and the milestones keep coming following Czechia’s ground-breaking run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. At the conclusion of the WBC this March, Czech and Japanese baseball authorities began cultivating a partnership to establish long-term cooperation between the two nations. Few would have seen this coming at the tournament’s start. Eight months later, the fruits of this unlikely friendship continue to make themselves noticeable. “The WBC was definitely the beginning of this collaboration,” says Lukáš Ercoli, Head of Communica ..read more

The third annual European Winter League (EWL) has commenced in Tenerife, Spain, with 52 athletes from 13 European countries practicing and competing under the Spanish sun between Nov 18 and Nov 26. The week-long event, organized by WBSC Europe with the co-operation of both the Royal Spanish Baseball and Softball Federation and the local Canary Islands Baseball and Softball Federation, will see the players dividied into three teams, with a series of practicies followed by seven games. As is to be expected, Spanish prospects are the most numerous at the event (17), with Bulgaria a surprising sec ..read more

The penultimate day of the WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup confirmed the final positions from 5-12 with just the final between Cuba and France and the bronze medal game between Türkiye and Mexico still to play. At the end of Super Round play, China took fifth place, with Taiwan finishing sixth. The Placement Round was also completed with Ghana, Tunisia, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, and Zambia finishing in the positions seven to 12 respectively. The first game was between the France and China. The Red Dragons took the first match, 4-1. Then, the No. 2 team in the world, France, had to work hard ..read more

France booked its spot in the final of the Youth Baseball5 World Cup in Ankara, Türkiye, after the first day’s play of the Super Round on Friday. Meanwhile, fellow European representative Türkiye also confirmed its place in the bronze medal game. In another superb day of Baseball5 action, the day’s most anticipated match between France and Cuba lived up to its billing as the two unbeaten teams went head to head before Cuba ran out 11-1, 7-4 winners. The two will have a much-anticipated rematch in the final on Sunday due to Cuba’s 4-0, 3-0 defeat of Taiwan in its second match of the day and Fr ..read more

After an intense last day of Opening Round play in Ankara, Türkiye, the final four teams to advance to the Youth Baseball5 World Cup Super Round were confirmed, while the remaining six nations will compete in the Placement Round. World No. 1 Taiwan, No. 12 Mexico, No. 24 Türkiye, and No. 26 China joined France and Cuba in the Super Round. The morning session of Day 3 started with two intense games between China and host team Türkiye, starting with a classic matchup that ended, after two extra innings, in favour of Türkiye, 10-9. The rubber match was a nailbiter as well, finishing 8-6. Türkiye ..read more

Unbeaten France and Cuba booked Super Round spots at the Youth Baseball5 World Cup on Day Two. France beat Chinese Taipei in the feature game of the day between the top two ranked teams in the world. Day Three on Thursday will feature 10 more Opening Round games to determine the top three teams in each group, who will advance to the Super Round. Both World No. 2 France and Cuba, ranked sixth in the world, are unbeaten with four wins from as many games. Each will finish the Opening Round on Thursday with one game each, against Australia and Malaysia respectively. The chase for the two remainin ..read more

World No. 2 France and No. 6 Cuba lead Group B and Group A respectively with two wins from two games after the first day’s play at the inaugural WBSC Youth Baseball5 World Cup in Ankara, Türkiye. Tunisia and Türkiye are also undefeated in Group A with one win a piece, while world No. 1 Taiwan won its only game on Tuesday. Europe is represented by France and Turkey at the event and, as with all baseball5 events, a “game” is actually a best-of-three series. France had a difficult assignment in the second game of the day at Yenimahalle Spor Kompleksi, Ankara, matching up with México. T ..read more

The Tampere Tigers went into the Superbaseball final series against Espoo Expos as early favorites; after all, the team had only lost one game in the entire regular season. After the 11-1 finish, the Tigers earned a bye in the semifinals, which pitted Espoo against Helsinki Puumat. The Expos dismantled the third-placed team in SuperBaseball, 16-1 and 15-7, to set up a showdown with Tampere. The Tigers started the finals strongly and won the first match with a 1-10 result. The second match was already much tighter, but the people of Tampere still took it 12-10. Thus, the Tigers had 3 ‘ma ..read more

Herts Baseball Club celebrated the opening of its Basing Hill Ballpark, in which Barnet councillors threw out ceremonial first pitches. The Basing Hill Ballpark project was completed on 20 June but, with a busy schedule of league games and events, it was not until 1 Oct. that the club found an available date in the calendar to mark the occasion. Barnet councillors Anne Clarke, Giulia Innocenti, and Nigel Young were the guests of honour and they threw out the ceremonial first pitch during the opening games of the 2023 Hunlock Series, the club’s annual intra-club competition. During the ceremon ..read more

By Gabriel Fidler, Managing Editor. The WBSC released its newest set of world rankings yesterday, and virtually all European baseball nations saw a change in position thanks to new points available from the European Baseball Championship and the Under-18 World Cup. Great Britain set a new programme record with a No. 18 ranking, while Czechia returned to 14th, a position it has held multiple times in the past seven years. Fast-rising Switzerland rose 16 places, more than any country in the world, while Greece and Sweden were also big winners, and each of three was awarded its best-ever ranking ..read more