The 2012 European Championship is about to conclude its preliminary phase. The fourth game day of the first round was played on Monday. Defending champion Italy improved to 4-0 with a 7-0 shutout over Greece. Chris Colabello hit a grand slam and four pitchers combined in a six-hitter, as the Squadra Azzurri is the lone undefeated team in the tournament. In the other two Group-A matchups Spain crushed Sweden 13-1 and Croatia celebrated for the first time after an 8-4 victory over Russia.
In Group B the Netherlands redeemed themselves after their loss against the Czech Republic, shutting out Germany 10-0 in seven innings. They took advantage of a couple of errors in the German defense and needed just two productive frames to seal the deal. Kalian Sams went deep and drove in four runs. Additionally Boris Bokaj lead the Czech Republic to a 6-0 win over France, pitching a complete game shutout and Belgium stunned Great Britain with four runs in the eighth of a 10-7 win.
The first round will be concluded with six games on Tuesday. The top three teams from each pool advance to the second round, while the non-qualified have to settle for classification games.
Results:
Friday, September 7, 2012
Spain 10 – Greece 0
Sweden 14 – Russia 1
Czech Republic 4 – Germany 5
France 3 – Great Britain 1
Croatia 0 – Italy 16
Belgium 0 – Netherlands 17
Saturday, September 8:
Russia 1 – Spain 10
Germany 10 – Belgium 2
Greece 7 – Croatia 2
Netherlands 15 – France 0
Great Britain 6 – Czech Republic 1
Italy 8 – Sweden 1
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Netherlands 2 – Czech Republic 3
France 9 – Belgium 8
Sweden 4 – Croatia 2
Germany 6 – Great Britain 1
Italy 4 – Spain 3
Greece 9 – Russia 5
Monday, September 10, 2012
Croatia 8 – Russia 4
Sweden 1 – Spain 13
France 0 – Czech Republic 6
Belgium 10 – Great Britain 7
Italy 7 – Greece 0
Netherlands 10 – Germany 0
