Hellas participated in the 2024 Prague Baseball Week Tournament for the 2nd time, going a perfect 4-0 in Group B, to win the title. The Greeks were placed in the 'B Group' with Lithuania, Slovakia, Austria and Hungary while 'Group A' had Czech Republic, Japan, Germany and Chinese Taipei.
The Greek National team performed exceptionally well this past week defeating:
Slovakia 5-3
Hungary 13-2
Lithuania 9-2
Austria 5-2
Greece has defeated Austria 3 consecutive times dating to the 2021 European Championship in Italy, and also faced Lithuania for the first time since 2021 when they won the European B Pool Championship to qualify for Europe's top championship level. Hungary was the 2nd ever match-up, with the first coming last year in the 2023 Euro Championship. The game vs Slovakia was the first ever baseball match-up between the 2 countries.
Hellas was led offensively by Elijah Lambros, George Athanasiadis and Andre Demetral. Lambros coming off his junior season at the University of Maryland, led the team with 3 homeruns and 7 RBIs. He is hopeful to hear his name called this week in the MLB Draft. Demetral and Athanasiadis both had 1 HR each. On the mound, the Blue and White were lead by Alexander Mihalakis (Long Beach State) and Anthoni Kiafoulis (University of Pennsylvannia). Both pitchers tossed 4 scoreless innings this week with a handful of strikeouts.
The progression of the national team has been extremely impressive over the last 3-4 years, as the player talent pool is continuing to grow. Greece has an overall record of 8-5 since Manager Chris Demetral was hired. The Greeks will now turn their focus to preparing for the 2025 European Championship in September 2025. Location is yet to be determined by the WBSC Europe Board.
