GB U12s comeback falls just short against Belgium

Great Britain U12s were denied a late comeback win against Belgium in their third game of the 2024 European Championship Qualifier going down 3-2.

In contrast to Britain’s high-scoring match against Slovakia, this one was a tight, low-scoring affair, where the pitchers of both sides came out on top.

Starting pitcher Raj Somaia was outstanding in his four-and-one-third innings on the mound for GB. He allowed just one earned run and whiffed an incredible 11 Belgian batters. Somaia now has 19 k’s in the tournament and ranks as the best pitcher in that statistic.

James Theodorakis did an excellent relief pitching job where he allowed zero runs and punched out an excellent six batters.

Like in their previous game, GB found themselves three runs down, this time after four-and-a-half innings. The tournament’s leading run scorer, Mats Ruggenberg, once again led the Belgian offence. The centre fielder scored one run and recorded one RBI across two hits.

Runs from second baseman Stevie Guillet and first baseman Sebastian Taylor brought the Brits within one run of their opponents, but with two outs on the board, they failed to find the equalising run in the final inning and were agonisingly defeated 3-2.

On Saturday, GB will get the chance to re-ignite their early promise in the B-Pool with a match against Hungary, who have an identical 0.333 win percentage.

Belgium will face Slovakia in what could be the game of the tournament between two sides who have won all three of their matches so far.

GB Baseball U12s take on Hungary to day (Saturday) at 1.00pm BST. The game can be streamed on baseballeuropetv

Words : Michael Thomas

All photos : WBSC Europe