Great Britain Baseball unveils squad for U15 European Championship Qualifier
Sunday, 10 June 2018 - reporting Tom Flack
The British Baseball Federation (BBF) has released details of its roster for July’s U15 European Championship Qualifier. Six nations, including Great Britain, will square off in Belgium for a place in the 2019 European Championship.
12 nations have entered the qualifier, meaning that two tournaments will run concurrently in different countries, with the winner of each earning their place at next year’s European Championship. Great Britain will play Hungary, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine in addition to the hosts, Belgium. Meanwhile Croatia, who will host the other pool, will welcome Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.
The U15s last competed internationally in 2016, also in the European Championship Qualifier. In that tournament, played in Switzerland, GB lost a 6-5 heartbreaker in the final against Poland.
The 2017 team is set to represent the BBF with an exciting group of players, most of whom will be making their international debut. There are in fact just two players with GB experience: two Alex’s, Deacon and Sollecito, who took part in the 2016 Qualifier.
A spokesperson for the BBF said, “With the rebuild of players that make up the U15s we are also seeing the new participants coming from clubs like Brighton, Herts, Mets, Southampton, London Sports and LYBL, which shows the caliber of youth players is widening throughout our clubs in Great Britain. A great acknowledgement for each of the clubs mentioned in their development of young players. With more clubs moving forward through their own youth player development initiatives it effectively means we are widening the strength of the National Team Programme.”
It will be a busy summer for Great Britain Baseball, with U12, U18 and U23 teams also in action in European competition.
Head back to www.britishbaseballfederation.com for more news from the GB camp throughout the summer, or follow the team on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
The competitions website of CEB will feature the full tournament schedule, stats and live play by play feeds for all games.
Great Britain Baseball is administered by the British Baseball Federation and organises national teams at the U12, U15, U18, U23 and Senior levels. The mission of the national teams programme is to Inspire, Develop and Perform. GB Baseball won gold at the first Baseball World Cup in 1938 and silver medals at the 1967 and 2007 European Championships.
GB BASEBALL U15 ROSTER
Goal £25,000
The BBF and GB Baseball receive no public funding. We need your donations to send four of our National Teams (U12, U15, U18 and U23) to compete at the CEB European Tournaments this summer. Thank you in advance for your support!