ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS – Great Britain Baseball led wire-to-wire on Friday night enroute to a 3-2 victory over Croatia at the 2025 European Championships in Rotterdam. The win secures GBR’s spot in the 5/6 placement game tomorrow against Germany in a rematch of the 2023 European Championship semifinal.
Charlie Collins led off the game with a walk, but had an awkward slide as he stole second, and was replaced by pinch-runner Kennard Dawson. Nick Ward walked, and Julian Sanders singled to load the bases, with Will Cresswell’s sacrifice with one out bringing home Dawson for the first run of the day. Croatian starter Carlos Garcia was able to recover to retire Michael Flaherty to end the inning, but Great Britain had the lead before their first defensive inning, 1-0.
Great Britain veteran and co-Captain Alex Webb took the mound for GBR, his second start of the tournament, and worked in and out of trouble. Stranding five runners on base across four innings of work, while striking out four, Webb gave way to Andrew Campbell in the fifth inning after keeping Croatia off the board. Campbell worked a perfect fifth inning and stranded a runner aboard in the sixth to keep Croatia off the board.
Great Britain struck again in the seventh. Dawson walked with one out, and an errant pickoff throw allowed him to reach third for Nick Ward. Ward doubled to centre and Dawson trotted home to double the GBR lead. Garcia gave way to Antonio Horvatic after 128 pitches, and Sanders greeted him with a double, scoring Ward, and giving Great Britain the 3-0 lead.
Jack Seppings took over on the hill for GBR and got the first out quickly, before Kruno Gojkovic deposited a pitch over the right field wall to get Croatia on the board. Seppings came back to end the inning without any further damage, and the score was 3-1 GBR through seven innings of play.
Great Britain could not score in the eight, and Croatia would narrow the lead again. MLB alumni Joey Terdoslavich singled with one out and came around to score on Jose Herrera’sscorched double to right-centre field, before Seppings ended the frame. In the ninth, GBR stranded a runner at second, and Seppings returned to the mound to finish off the game. The Brewers prospect worked a 1-2-3 ninth and secured the win for Great Britain, sending them to the 5/6th game on Saturday.
Great Britain will finish the European Championships tomorrow, 27 September against Germany, in the 5/6th placement game on Field 2 at the Neptunus Familiestadion complex in Rotterdam. Tomorrow’s game can be watched on BaseballEurope.TV.
For the latest news and notes from GB Baseball at the 2025 European Baseball Championship and the upcoming 2026 World Baseball Classic, make sure to follow Great Britain Baseball on Facebook, gb_baseball on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, TikTok at @gbbaseball, and on the British Baseball Federation Website, britishbaseball.org.uk.
– #LetsGoGB –