The history of one photo: first European Championship of the Ukrainian National Team

This photo of 1994 depicts Ukrainian national baseball team during their first European Championship in Division “B”. Olexandr Inozemtsev, a former national team player, travels down memory line.

 Olexandr Inozemtsev: It is photo of our team after the final game. It was the first European Championship in the history of Ukrainian baseball. Before the tournament, we had a 10-day meeting in Bologna (Italy). There we played test matches with professional teams of the Italian Baseball League (IBL). We were ready to fight for the title of champion and for one of two tickets to the top division of the European Baseball League. The tournament involved 13 National Teams which were divided into three groups. And only winners of each group were allowed to play for the champion title and right to play in Division “A”.

The favorites of that competition were Czech Republic, England, Croatia and Slovenia. Nobody knew about Ukraine. England, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Slovakia were in our subgroup. The first match was with Switzerland. Potentially our team was stronger, but the first game always psychologically difficult. We had unsuccessful game in attack and as a result, we lost 2:5. We were shocked by such result because we had a good preparation for that tournament. Maybe, that failure was beneficial for us. We didn’t show all our professional skills to the Swiss players. As a result, other teams could underestimate our potential. The second match we played against England. They were the obvious favorite, who arrived to the Championship to get the victory. That was our day because we brilliantly played in the attack and defense. Thus, we scored with 20:5 and British players were shocked with our victory. Then we had a success because with Bulgarian we scored 15:0 and with Slovakia, we won with the score 31:2. The team of England played a powerful match with Switzerland where they win with the score 16:2. Thus, we reached the first place in the group among three teams.

Then we played semi-final with Croatia where we won with the score 7:1. It was the remarkable game of our pitcher Volodymyr Kadiev and the final match with Slovenians, who were the host of the Championship.

TV, spectators, tension. We led the score, but then the Slovakian team made a grand-slam (home-run when three bases are loaded – four scores). Before our last attack in the top part of the 9th inning, we lost 5:6. We managed to make a double-base hit in the corner of the field and loaded first base during two outs. Thus, we tie the game with the score 6:6. The next beater was Valentyn Mishkur, who made a single. And our team took the lead (7:6). Thus, we gained two scores in the last attack during two outs. Then Slovenes attacked us, but our pitcher Oleg Venger and players played that inning on zero in defense. It was the first time (from the first attempt) when we became the European champion in Division “B”. And it was the first time when we opened the way to the elite group of the European baseball”.