Greece, Slovakia, Russia and Ukraine recently won their respective pools to complete the field of 16 participants for the European Baseball Championship, which is scheduled for 12-19 September in the Piemonte Region, north-western Italy.
Greece beat hosts Lithuania in the final in Utena, 8-4. Slovakia outscored Ireland, 12-2, on home turf in Bratislava. Ukraine defeated Serbia, 9-5, in the final in Belgrade, while Russia beat Belarus, 4-1, on home soil in Moscow.
At the youth level, the U-18 European Baseball Championship opened on 5 July in the Marche Region. Hosts Italy (3-0) lead the five-team group A, which also includes France, Israel, the Netherlands (all 1-1) and Lithuania (0-3).
Germany and Spain (2-0) lead group B over Austria and the Czech Republic (0-2).
The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, 10 July. The winners will compete for the title on Sunday, 11 July at 6 pm local time.
In other European national team events, the U-15 European Baseball Championship will open on Wednesday, 21 July, in Brno and Trnava, Czech Republic. The U-12 European Baseball Championship is set to start on 10 August in Mortsel, Belgium. The U-23 European Baseball Championship will open on 24 August in the Veneto Region, northeastern Italy.