Balent Hits Grandslam Homer As Croatia Stun Israel In The End

Israel followed in their performance from Thursday win over Denmark with a precise defence. They scored in the first inning thanks to RBI by Baran and in the third one, Rosenberg scored with an inside-park home run.

Both pitchers were on top of their play and it went straight to seventh inning for an amazing finish. At first, the Israelis scored three runs on errors of Croatia and then Zashin added sixth run with another inside-park homer.

However, the Croats didn’t give up. They needed six runs to make it even and they went for it. Brajsovac pulled Kanceljak home with a nice hit and Jakuš scores right after that on catcher’s error. With all bases loaded, Matija Balent then gave his team a much needed grandslam home run to make it even. Boosted by the recent events, Croatia soon adds another run and ends the game leaving Israeli players with nothing but tears.

“We’re disappointed. I’m sorry for the guys, because they did their best. It’s a pity. We played well throughout the whole tournament except for that very last inning,” Brian Klaff said after harsh loss.

Alen Magdalenic on the other side certainly had reasons to be happy. “This is a game somebody should make a movie about. It was a lifetime experience. I’m proud of my guys, because they didn’t stop believing until the very end. We were down six-nothing, we couldn’t hit the ball and everything seemed hopeless and than we scored seven straight. I’m speechless,” he said.