2025 European Baseball Championship

The 2025 European Men's Baseball Championship was an international baseball tournament organized by WBSC Europe held in Rotterdam, Milan, and Antwerp from 20 to 27 September 2025. It was the 38th edition of the competition.

It was the first edition of the tournament to be held in three countries, as well as the first since 1967 with games held in Belgium.^[2]

The Netherlands won the tournament, beating Italy in the championship 6–5 in Rotterdam after beating defending champion Spain in the semifinal. It was the 25th European championship for the Dutch and 27th time facing Italy in the final game. The Czech Republic defeated Spain in the third-place game, their first-ever medal in the tournament. Two Dutch players won the top individual awards, with Didi Gregorius named the MVP and Kevin Kelly the best pitcher.

Hungary and Lithuania, which both lost all their games, were relegated during the tournament.

The top 13 teams of the 2023 European Championship qualified automatically for the tournament. The remaining three spots were filled through qualification tournaments in 2024, won by Hungary, Lithuania, and Austria.^[3][4][5]

Four groups of four teams competed in a round robin to begin the tournament. The top two teams from groups A and B qualified for the quarterfinals, the second round of the tournament stage. The first round of the tournament, called the crossover playoff, included the bottom two teams from groups A and B and top two teams from groups C and D. The bottom two teams from groups C and D competed in a best-of-three relegation series.^[6][7][8]

One week before the start of the tournament, Group C games were moved from a stadium in Senago to the Stadio Marco Provini in Novara due to poor conditions at the Senago field. The Italian baseball and softball federation agreed to pay for additional transportation costs from Milan.^[9][10]

Fan entrance to games in Rotterdam on 20 September were affected by pro-Palestinian protests regarding the Gaza war and Israel's participation in the tournament.^[11][12][13] Protesters returned for subsequent Israel games.^[14] Rain also delayed some of the 20 September games in Rotterdam.^[15]

Two of the three host countries, the Netherlands and Italy, went undefeated in group play while Belgium managed one win and was eliminated from the final round.^[8][16]

• All times Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00)

The relegation round was a best-of-three series with the third and fourth place teams of Groups C and D, with the result of the Group stage game serving as Game 1 of the series. The losers of both series, Lithuania and Hungary, was relegated. Both teams lost all their games in the tournament.

• All times Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00)

The Netherlands won the tournament, going undefeated. In the semifinals, avenging a loss to Spain in the 2023 championship semifinals, Dutch pitcher Kevin Kelly relieved the injured Tom de Blok in the first inning and got 16 strikeouts in 8+1⁄3 innings.^[17][18] That performance, along with two saves earlier in the tournament, won Kelly the best pitcher award.^[19] The Netherlands beat Italy, which had been the only other undefeated team, 6–5 in the championship game. Giaconino Lasaracina, who hit a tournament-leading six home runs, homered for Italy in the loss, while Sharlon Schoop hit a home run for the Dutch and had 2 runs batted in.^[20][21][22]

Spain lost in the third place game, 9–2 to the Czech Republic, giving the Czechs their first medal in the European tournament.^[23] Great Britain, after finishing second in the 2023 tournament, was knocked out of title contention again by Spain, losing in the quarterfinals.^[24]

^ - Relegated to B Pool European Qualifier

The championship featured several former Major League Baseball players, including Gregorius, Jonathan Schoop, and Shairon Martis for the Netherlands, Eric Sogard for the Czech Republic, and Luis Guillorme and Rhiner Cruz for Spain.^[25][26] Dovydas Neverauskas pitched and played first base for Lithuania.^[19] Croatia had first baseman Joey Terdoslavich and pitcher Asher Wojciechowski.^[26]

Several former players also managed and coached teams. All-Star Adam Jones was Spain's hitting coach. Former catcher Francisco Cervelli managed Italy, with former executive Allard Baird serving as the team's bench coach.^{[25][26][27][19]} Zach Vincej, Chase d'Arnaud, and Steve Rodriguez were on Croatia's coaching staff.^[26][28] Erik Pappas was Greece's bench coach.^[19][29] Dennis Cook, the former manager of Sweden and Poland, was Sweden's pitching coach.^[19][30]

The tournament was broadcast on WBSC Europe's paid streaming platform, baseballeurope.tv.^[31]