Bulgaria takes the inaugural Baseball5 Balkan Open
After a thrilling final the Bulgarian Baseball5 national team succeeded 1-0 over Romania to keep the title on the home soil.
SOFIA, Bulgaria — After a thrilling final the Bulgarian Baseball5 national team succeeded 1-0 over Romania to keep the title on the home soil.
Mixed team from Serbia, Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, faced each others in a round robin which culminated with third place and gold medal final. The event was organised by the Bulgarian Softball Federation with the support of the city of Sofia and local sponsors.
Here the full schedule and results:
Group stage
BUL – CZE : 5 – 7 / ROM – SRB : 13 – 0
SRB – BUL : 0 – 8 / CZE – ROM : 4 – 5
BUL – ROM : 3 – 4 / SRB – CZE : 9 – 6
Thanks to the best TQB Bulgaria advanced to the gold medal game to face Romania that was undefeated through the group stage. Czech Republic, upset from the last game would face again Serbia for the third place.
The Czech and the Serbs put on a show delivering what came to be, until now, the longest game in the young history of Baseball5 playing 3 extra innings stretching the game to 35 minutes. Finally, Czech Republic gained bronze with a walk-off fixing the final score 6 – 5.
The Gold medal game was no less intense than the previous one. In the end Bulgaria, making no defensive errors scored the only run of the game in the fourth inning and kept the trophy on the home home soil.
Bulgaria 1 Romania 0
WBSC aiming to reach one billion people, hopes that Baseball5 will bring the sport to new places not possible before.
The President of the Serbian softball federation Slobodan Djuric was impressed by the features and the potential of this new discipline and promised to take the 2019 edition of the Baseball5 Balkan Open to Belgrade.
The 5-on-5 street format is a fun, fast, cheap, easy and dynamic sport developed to equip national federations with an additional tool to boost participation and and visibility for baseball and softball. The balkans region are a perfect example, as baseball and softball have historically struggled to grow. The WBSC and the national members look forward to keep growing this event aiming to boost baseball and softball development.
