Baseball5 Archive: 2020 Balkan Open

As the only media organisation that regularly covers baseball5, we have spent a lot of time creating an archive of baseball5 events, information, and even the sport’s only record book. The recently completed Baseball5 European Championship is one of six baseball5 tournaments that have included mixed national teams, but the results of several have been scattered across a variety of websites. This week, we will profile the sport’s five previous tournaments to ensure these records from the early days of baseball5’s history are not lost.

The Balkan Open made history in 2020 as the first baseball5 tournament to return for a second edition. Although various sources have hinted that the Americas Open will return in 2020, Bulgaria’s initiative means it will retain this plaudit for now. The host nation claimed the title once more, with Romania yet again falling just short. Moldova took the Czech Republic’s place and nearly knocked off Serbia for the bronze.

The event took baseball5’s maxim of ‘Play Everywhere’ seriously, hosted the event in a shopping mall, making it the first indoor tournament as well. The tourney tied one word record: Most Runs in a Loss (Serbia 11 – Moldova 10) and set multiple European records, including highest-scoring game (Serbia 11 – Moldova 10) and most runs in a game (one team): Serbia 18 – Moldova 3.

Make sure to read our big latest update on baseball5, which includes the only world rankings, the first-ever team statistics, an expanded record book, and updated head-to-head results [link]. 

If the topic interests you, the following articles are worth checking out:
2020 Baseball5 Calendar [Link]
History of Baseball5 [Link]
Baseball5 Record Book, Edition 1.0 [Link]

The full list of international tournaments:
2018 Balkan Baseball5 Open [Link]
2018 Rome Baseball5 Open [Link]
2018 Havana Baseball5 Tournament [Link]
2019 Americas Baseball5 Open [Link]
2020 Baseball5 Euros [Link]
Baseball5 All-Time Head-to-Head Results [Link]

II Baseball5 Balkan Open
Sofia, Bulgaria
19 Feburary 2020

Group Play
Serbia-Bulgaria 0-7
Romania-Moldova 3-0
Bulgaria-Moldova 8-0
Serbia-Romania 5-1
Bulgaria-Romania 5-8
Moldova-Serbia 3-18

Bronze: Serbia 11 – Moldova 10
Gold (Best of three):
Bulgaria 3 – Romania 1
Bulgaria 4 – Romania 1

Final Standings
Team                    W-L       RF          RA
Bulgaria                4-1          27           10
Romania              2-3          14           17
Serbia                   3-1          34           21
Moldova              0-4          13           40