Israel just misses European baseball semis

Late blue-and-white rally falls short against the Czechs in the quarterfinal after a dominant win over the Swiss.

Israel lost a heartbreaker 4-3 to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the Baseball European Championship 2025 on Thursday in Rotterdam, stranding the tying run just 90 feet away with two outs in the ninth.

Lefty Jake Fishman opened the game by striking out two of the first three Czech hitters he faced. But in the second inning, a costly throwing error with two outs allowed two unearned runs to score.

The Czechs put runners on first and third with nobody out in the third, but big right-hander Aaron Meshulan shut the door by heroically getting three straight outs without anyone scoring. Both Meshulan and fireballer Josh Wolf, who followed him, kept Israel in the game, each yielding only one run through the middle innings.

In the seventh, Bubby Rossman came on with runners at the corners and ended the threat with an overpowering strikeout. Rossman also struck out the side in the eighth to give Israel a chance at a comeback.

Unfortunately, Israel had been held scoreless and managed only four hits through eight innings against Czech big southpaw starter Jan Novak and reliever Ondřej Satoria, the part-time electrician who made baseball fame with his strikeout of Shohei Ohtani in the 2023 WBC.

Israel stays in 5-8 placement bracket

Manager Nate Fish told his players: “The game was winnable,” and Chase Engelhard, Benjamin Rosengard, and Blake Dickman put together three straight hits, and it seemed another comeback was inevitable as Israel plated all three. But the rally came up short.

Rather than the Final Four, Israel will now settle for the 5-8 placement bracket as it takes on Germany (which lost 1-0 to Italy in their quarterfinal) on Friday at 2 p.m.

Thursday’s duel against the Czechs came a day after Justin Alintoff led a fired-up Israel to a dominating 9-1 victory over Switzerland on Wednesday, earning a berth in the quarterfinals.

Alintoff overpowered Swiss batters en route to a complete-game victory – a growing rarity in today’s game, especially in a short tournament where every matchup is a must-win.

“Today was Alintoff’s show,” said Fish. “But everyone rose to the occasion with an offense that put the game out of reach early and outstanding defense that gave Justin four ‘free’ outs. Today we proved we deserve to reach the quarterfinals, and our boys have the talent and desire.”