U-18 Baseball European Championship 2024 starts on Monday in Regensburg

The 12 teams are split into two groups during the preliminary round robin, which will be played from Monday to Friday. In Group A reigning title holder Spain, host Germany, Austria, Croatia, Israel and Italy are vying for a spot in the semi-finals. In Group B Belgium, Czechia, France, Great Britain, Netherlands and Sweden are looking to aim for the top two spots in the pool.

The best two teams in each Group qualify for the semi-finals. The final is scheduled for Sunday at 19:00. During the first round six games are scheduled each day at the two international standard fields in Regensburg, which both have lights: at 10:00, 11:30, 14:00, 15:30, 18:00 and 19:30. Games are played over seven innings.

The U-18 Baseball European Championship is probably the most important tournament on the 2024 calendar in European baseball. The top two teams will qualify for the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2025. Spain won the event in 2022 with a 6-2 win over the Netherlands in the final in Brno, Czechia. The Netherlands are the record title holder with 17 Gold Medals. Italy has won 14 times. Spain is the only other country to win in tournament history.

WBSC Europe previewed the best athletes from each team in a players to watch series (Group A, Group B). As usual the U-18 Baseball European Championship is the prime tournament in Europe to showcase the top talents, as the players try to convince MLB scouts of their talents, hoping for the big league dream.

All games are being streamed live through www.baseballeurope.tv. Live play by play is available at www.wbsceurope.org.

Photo by Guggenberger Legionaere Regensburg