Record-Setting Baseball5 Euros Are Offensive Hit

France has been crowned the first baseball5 champion of Europe after 30 months of trailblazing in the sport. The Baseball5 Euros featured exhilarating play and plenty of tense moments across the 90 games contested. Few can argue with the offensive excitement of baseball5, as 1,023 runs were scored over the three days. One baseball5 world record and three European records were set by the 14 teams, eight of whom were making their international debut. Today we present a series of notes, analysis, and records from the tournament, along with statistics from the competition. Tomorrow we unveil the baseball5 all-time record book, plus the head-to-head records of every national team that has played a baseball5 tournament.

Day 1 Recap [Link]
Day 2 Recap [Link]
Day 3 Recap [Link]

Notes

• All teams in the top four have two losses and at least eight wins.
• One team played only nine games in the tournament and one played 14, but most contested 10 or 11.
• There was a wider range of average innings played per game, with France and Estonia playing only 4.54 innings per contest and Belarus a whopping 5.57 innings. That means that Belarus played 10 percent more innings than would be expected.
  • Interestingly, with all the mercy rule victories and extra innings, the average number of innings played was exactly five. (A few games’ innings totals are missing.)
• A total of 1,023 runs were scored in 90 games (11.37 per game)
  • 507 runs were scored in 41 pool play games (12.37 per game)
  • 333 in 35 playoff games (9.51 per game)
  • 183 in 14 games in the finals (13.07 per game)
• The offensive leaders were France (129), Italy (103), and Russia (93).
  • France averaged 11.33 runs per game in pool play, 5.8 runs in the playoffs, and 16 in the finals.
  • Italy, meanwhile, averaged 11.83 in group contests and 5.8 runs in the playoffs, but only 1.5 in the bronze medal series.
  • Measured per five innings to account for mercy rule wins, France had a superpowered offence, averaging 11.12 runs per five frames. Italy (7.92), Russia (7.75), and Lithuania (7.67) were close.
• Russia was the defensive leader with only 23 runs allowed in 12 games. France (43 in 13) and Italy (59) were the next closest.
  • By innings, Russia (1.92 per five), France (3.31), Italy (4.54), and Israel (4.64) had solid performances.
• No team scored fewer than 30 runs.
  • Moldova (2.78 per five innings) and Moldova (2.86) were the only nations to average less than three runs per five frames.
• Two teams allowed more than 100 runs: Estonia (119) and Czech Republic (117). The former allowed opponents to average 10.08 runs per five innings, while the Czechs (8.73) were almost as porous. Only two other teams permitted more than seven runs per five frames.
  • Only three teams (Estonia, Czech Republic, and Belgium) allowed more runs per five innings than silver medallists Lithuania (7.02).
• The following world record was set:
  • Most runs in a loss: 11 (twice), Bulgaria (11) vs. Lithuania (12) and Belarus (11) vs. Netherlands [2020 Euros]
    • Previous record: 10, Venezuela (11) vs. Guatemala (10) [2019 Americas Open]
    • Previous European record: 10, Serbia (11) vs. Moldova (10) [2020 Balkan Open]
  • Israel and Belarus (playoffs) and Belarus and the Netherlands (Fifth Place Game) tied the record for the all-time longest baseball5 game at eight innings, equalling Czech Republic and Serbia in the 2018 Balkan Open.
    • This may be the world record as well.
  • The following European records were set:
    • Most runs in a game, one team: 22, France vs. Czech Republic
      • Previous record: 18, Moldova vs. Serbia (2020 Balkan Open)
    • Most runs in a game: 30, France (20) vs. Lithuania (10) [2020 Euros Championship Series]
      • Previous record: 21, Moldova (3) vs. Serbia (18) [2020 Balkan Open]
    • Largest margin of victory: 22, France vs. Czech Republic
      • Previous record: 16, France (16) vs. Italy (0) [2018 Rome]
    • The following European records were not equalled:
      • Fewest runs in a victory: 1, Bulgaria (1) vs. Romania (0) [2018 Balkan Open]