2003 European Championship

The 2003 European Championship was held in The Netherlands from July 11 through July 19, 2003. The favored Dutch national team cruised to a title, outscoring opponents 60-3 thanks to a 0.40 staff ERA. Only two of their nine pitchers allowed a run. The top 7 teams advanced to a qualifier for the 2004 Olympics. The Greek national team won a medal for the first time, helped along by many American ringers including former major leaguers Erik Pappas, Sean Spencer and Kevin Pickford and future major leaguer Nick Markakis. The only major leaguer to appear for a team other than Greece was Dutch player Yurendell de Caster, one of their lighter performers. Two other Dutch performers, Evert-Jan 't Hoen and Sharnol Adriana, had played in AAA.

Final Ranking

Rank	Nation
Gold	Netherlands
Silver	Greece
Bronze	Spain
4th	Sweden
5th	Italy
6th	Czech Republic
7th	France
8th	Russia
9th	United Kingdom
10th	Croatia
11th	Belgium
12th	Germany

The Greeks (6-2) outscored opponents 55-10 and Italy (6-2) had a 42-18 edge. Spain (6-2) had a 35-30 edge. Italy was the only non-medal team to outscore their opponents. Sweden (3-5) was outscored 48-27, the Czechs (4-4) 24-18, France (3-5) 27-23, Russia (2-6) 51-22, Great Britain (3-4) 40-30, Croatia (3-4) 29-23, Belgium (2-5) 38-18 and Germany (0-7) 51-16.

Awards

• MVP - Xavier Civit, Spain

• Outstanding Defensive Player - Vince Rooi, Netherlands

All-Star Team:

• C: Chairon Isenia, Netherlands
• 1B: Xavier Civit, Spain
• 2B: Chris Demetral, Greece
• SS: Raily Legito, Netherlands
• 3B: Vince Rooi, Netherlands
• OF: Bryan Engelhardt, Netherlands
• OF: Giovanni Pantaleoni, Italy
• OF: Cory Antony Harris, Greece
• LHP: Patrick Beljaards, Netherlands
• RHP: Eelco Jansen, Netherlands

Source: Harry Wedemeijer's international tournaments statistics

See also 2003 European Championship (Rosters)