The U18 European Championship in Gijon, Spain starts on Monday with eight of the ten participating countries already being on the field. Defending champion Italy takes on Sweden in the opener. Great Britain squares off against Germany in L. Llanera. Lithuania faces Russia. And in the evening game the Netherlands play against host Spain. The Czech Republic and France will enter the competition on Tuesday. The tournament will be played from July 11 to 17, 2016.

The 2016 Junior Euros will serve as qualifier for the U18 Baseball World Cup in 2017 in Thunder Bay, Canada. Italy beat the Netherlands 3-2 in the Gold Medal Game of last year’s U18 European Championship in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The Czech team finished in third place in the final standings.

Once again the participants are split into two pools of five teams each. Pool A consists of Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany and Sweden, Pool B of the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Russia, Lithuania and Spain. A round robin will be played from Monday to Friday with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semifinals on Saturday. The Gold Medal Game is set for Sunday at 4pm local time.

Schedule Day 1:

The complete schedule, live play by play and all statistics are available through www.baseballstats.eu. The official website of the tournament and the Facebook page of the local baseball federation are offering further information.