Ukrainian baseball players won the U21 European Championship

The Ukraine has won the U21 European Championship that took place in Tel Aviv, Israel! For the first time in its sport history Ukraine national U21 baseball team won first. From the game beginning Ukrainian team pleasantly surprised not only fans but opponents as well. Ukrainians played good defense mostly due to the steady pitches by Heorgii Hvrytishvili and Dmytro Kiliyevich during the first game with Lithuania (10-1) and the second game (3-0).

During the second day of the Championship Ukrainian sportsmen had a winner-take-all game with Russian team. Russian baseball players having none runs have managed to return only two hits. As a result Ukrainian team received flawless victory par 3-0.

The third day of the European Youth Championship 2016 started with the game Lithuania- Russia. Many European baseball experts and fans got shocked by the first inning. Starting pitcher’s game was rather unstable and as a result Russian team received three runs. After that Lithuanian players answered with six hits nine runs. However Baltic republic did not manage to win Russian players and lose the game 10 to 12.

The Ukraine national team played great game with Israel. During the first innings the 2-1 score has saved intrigue. Further Ukrainian baseball players were up concerning both game and score. As a result the Ukraine downed Israel 9-1 and got into the final.  

     

During the last 20 years the Ukraine national baseball team several times got into the final and won silver medals. But they have never captured gold until this year. During the final competition Ukrainians met with Russian players. Playing the first inning Ukrainians were three runs clear of competitors. As the game progressed, Ukrainians increased the lead due to the strong positions of players. As a result Ukraine team defeated Russia 7-5.

Ukrainian team was justly rewarded with gold medal of the European Championship. We congratulate the players and coaches of the team! Three Ukrainian baseball players were also awarded individual prizes: Yevhen Zhantalai (the best batter), Dmytro Kiliyevich (the best pitcher) and Vitalii Chukhrii - MVP of the Championship.

Preparing for the U21 European Championship Ukrainian baseball players under auspices of Yuriy Boyko, Oleg Boyko and Sergii Limarenko had intensive trainings at the Kirovograd baseball stadium. In addition they had several training games with the KNTU-Elisavetgrad team, which is multiple baseball champion of Ukraine.

Training games with professional sportsmen delivered benefits. From the first game of the Championship Ukrainians played confidently and showed a great game.

Baseball teams from the United Kingdom and Poland did not participate in the Championship for some unknown reasons. That’s why this year competition was quite swift-passing. Final standing:

It is interesting to note that baseball in Ukraine is not very popular game. Baseball has no national support in Ukraine. Nevertheless, there are baseball teams practically in each Ukrainian city. Sportsmen regularly participate in different baseball tournaments. “KNTU – Elisavetgrad” (Kirovograd baseball team) is 20-time champion of Ukraine. Just Kirovograd is considered to be “the baseball capital of Ukraine”.  Most of sportsmen of the Ukrainian national team are players of “KNYU - Elisavetgrad” team.

Not long ago, BioTexCom Center for Human Reproduction became a sponsor of “KNYU - Elisavetgrad” team. At the beginning of June number of baseball tournaments took place. Ukrainian team received a quota in the second class tournament under the auspices of the Confederation of European Baseball. This competition took place in French cities Rouen and Chartres and eight teams played. “KNYU - Elisavetgrad” was one of them. Thanks to the BioTexCom center sponsor support players got the opportunity to go to France by air and to live in quite good apartments. 

Despite certain difficulties, Ukrainian baseball players try their best to make baseball more popular in Ukraine. There are a lot of baseball schools and clubs, where professional sportsmen share their experience and skills with younger generation. That's how the JV Ukrainian baseball team takes after their colleges “KNYU - Elisavetgrad” and show Europe great results. This year wasn`t successful for Ukrainian Football players (our sportsmen scored 0 goals on the European football championship 2016). Baseball team, in turn, showed how to win despite everything.

Ukrainian champions were glad to hear, that International Olympic Committee added five new disciplines to the Olympic Program. Next Games will take place in Tokyo, in 2020. Baseball competition is going to be the part of program. Ukrainian baseball players are in a serious mood towards these competitions. According to experts, they have a chance to win it.

Ukraine National Baseball Team - the U21 European Championship winners

Bottom row, left to right: Chukhrii Vitalii, Chukhas Kostiantyn, Rohach Kyrylo, Kosenko Vladyslav, Savchenko Oleksii, Liubchenko Yehor, Kostashchuk Andrii, Levandovskyi Bohdan.

Top row, left to right: Boiko Yuriy, Boiko Kostiantyn, Bytiak Volodymyr, Zhantalai Yevhen, Liakhovetski Mykola, Hvrytishvili Heorgii, Kliuienko Yaroslav, Kurylchuk Artur, Kiliyevich Dmytro, Boiko Oleksii, Boiko Oleg.