02/06/2022 1 Minute Read

Growing the Game: Baseball5 National Championship staged in Moldova

The five-on-five game only requires a ball to play and can be staged in various existing setting, eliminating the need for specialty equipment and construction projects, which in the past have been challenges to growing the game in key targets like Africa and Europe.

Baseball and softball leaders in Moldovan are pushing the adoption and practice of the five-on-five Baseball5 discipline as a tool to grow the game, recently staging the Moldova National Baseball5 Championship in capital city Chisinau.

The SCJRO No1 Tigers won the 2022 Moldovan National Baseball5 Championship, finishing ahead of silver medallists Club Pirates and bronze medallists SSCJRO No. 1 Team 2.

There are approximately 500 total players of baseball, softball and/or Baseball5 currently in the country, according to Vladislav Beltic, the president of the Moldovan Baseball and Softball Federation (Federatia Sportivă Națională de Baseball și Softball).

Before the pandemic paused most sports activity around the world, the Moldovan Baseball5 National Team placed 13th (out of 14) in the 2020 European Baseball5 Championship.

Baseball and softball have been steadily expanding to new and emerging territories as more and more nations roll out Baseball5 programmes.

The five-on-five game, which will make its debut in the Youth Olympic Games (2026), only requires a ball to play and can be staged in various existing setting, eliminating the need for specialty equipment and construction projects, which in the past have been challenges to growing the game in key targets like Africa and Europe.