Karlskoga won the second of Saturday's games against Sundbyberg 5-4, giving them a 3-1 victory in the best of 5 Swedish finals series.

It's the first time in the club's 15 year history that they've won the Swedish Championships.

WP: Adam Sowell (2-0)
LP: Michael Andersson (0-1)

Adam Sowell was named as Most Valuable Player.

Playing at home, Karlskoga won the first of Saturday's two games against Sundbyberg in the Swedish baseball finals, 9-6.

After last weekend's split series at Sundbyberg, Karlskoga is leading the best of 5 series 2-1.

From the Swedish Baseball and Softball Federation website:

Karlskoga-Sundbyberg 9-6

WP: Sami Säkkinen (1-0)
LP: Nick Soubiea (1-1)
Save: Ronny Frid (1)

Saturday's second game started at 15:00 hrs local time. Should Sundbyberg win, the finals would be decided by a game on Sunday.

Defending champions Sundbyberg edged out visitors Karlskoga 5-4 Sunday, to even the 2007 Swedish Baseball Championship finals at 1-1.

Sundbyberg jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Karlskoga tied the score in the top of the 3rd, with Sundbyberg taking a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the inning. Karlskoga scored another run in the top of the 8th, but Sundbyberg came back with the winning run the bottom half of the inning.

Nick Soubiea, who pitched a complete game, got the win, and Karlskoga's Kent Karlsson was the losing pitcher, also with a complete game.

The finals move to Karlskoga next weekend, with two games on Saturday, and one more on Sunday, if necessary.

Visiting Karlskoga won the first game of the Swedish 2007 baseball finals Saturday, shutting out hosts Sundbyberg 7-0.

The score was 1-0 going into the top of the 9th, when Karlskoga put together a 6 run rally. Closer Ronny Frid retired three Sundbyberg batters in row in the bottom of the 9th. 

The second game of the best-of-five series will be at Sundbyberg on Sunday.

Next weekend the finals move to Karlskoga, with at least one game on Saturday, and more games Saturday and Sunday if needed.

Officially Leksand won the 2007 Swedish Junior Baseball Championship, 1-0.

Unofficially the final result seems highly flawed, and the finals game should either be completed or replayed.

The sole run was recorded when a Leksand runner on third came home on a passed ball. Apparently just about everyone except the umpire was pretty sure the runner was dead at the plate. A few innings later the umpire called the game in the 6th inning because of rain.

Earlier Sunday Eskilstuna edged out Sundbyberg 6-7 to take third place.

Last year Stockholm was removed from the Junior standings for reasons that were never publicly explained. One day all the stats for Stockholm were just removed.

The secret excuse seemed to be because the team hadn't played enough games, but that was because the Baseball Federation scheduled cadet tournaments that made it impossible for Stockholm to field a team on key weekends.

Unfortunately there is apparently something deeply wrong with the way those in power in Sweden treat Juniors, at least those who play for Stockholm.

After taking an early lead, Sweden lost the final European Championship game to hosts Spain 8-5. The game was televised live on Eurosport 2 (which unfortunately started broadcasting the game half an hour earlier than the time in their schedule).

Sweden took an early 2-0 lead when, with Magnus Pilegård on base, Dean Lindberg hit a first inning home run.

One of the turning points in the game came not long afterwards, when first baseman Björn Johannessen caught a low line drive, and immediately threw to second base, picking off the runner there, who had run to third. In an apparently horrible bad call, the umpire ruled the ball had been trapped, not caught. Instead of two outs and the bases empty, the Spanish team had runners on first and third with no outs. They scored their first run shortly afterwards.

Had the call gone right, the whole texture and momentum of the game might have been different.

Because of the win, Spain, along with Great Britain, goes on to a qualifying tournament for the Beijing Olympics.

The Netherlands won a direct Olympic birth by winning the tournament with a 6-1 victory over Great Britain.

The umping might have left a bit to be desired, but Eurosport's coverage and commentary was excellent.

Stockholm easily defeated Eskilstuna 7-1 in the opening semi-final of the Swedish Junior Baseball Championships Sunday.

Oscar Carlstedt struck out the side in each of the first three innings.

In the second semi-final Leksand beat Sundbyberg. Sundbyberg and Eskilstuna are playing for third place, with the final between Stockholm and Leksand.

The series is being played at Stockholm's home field in Skarpnäck.

On day two of the final round of the European Baseball Championships, France shut out Sweden 10-0.

Starting pitcher Mattias Stenis gave up 8 earned runs in the first three innings. With the loss, Sweden is out of the running to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

Sweden's final game, against Spain, will be broadcast by Eurosport 2 on Sunday at 17:30 Central European Summer Time.

After moving ahead to a 7-3 lead by the fourth inning, Sweden failed to hold it.

After the British tied the score 7-7, the Swedes surrendered 3 runs in the top of the 9th inning, to give Great Britain a 10-7 victory in their opening match of the final round of the European Baseball Championships in Barcelona.

In Friday's other games, Europe's best team, the Netherlands, shut down France 18-0 in 7 innings. Russia beat Austria 7-2. (Germany faces Spain at 19:00 hrs Friday.)

On Saturday the Swedes play France at 11:00 AM. The final game of the round, Sweden vs host Spain, will be televised by Eurosport 2 on Sunday. (The official starting time is 17:00 hrs UTC, but according to the Eurosport schedule, their coverage begins at 17:30.)

At the European Baseball Championships in Barcelona, Germany beat the Czech Republic 6-1, ensuring Sweden a spot in the final round.

Sweden finished group play on a high note Wednesday, beating winless Austria 4-1. The Swedish defence was tight, errorless, turning two double plays. The Swedes open the final round against Great Britain on Friday.

At the European Baseball Championships in Barcelona, Sweden beat the Czech Republic 2-1 on Tuesday.

The Czechs led 1-0 going into the 9th inning, but the Swedes scored twice and blanked the Czechs in the home side of the frame. This puts Sweden in third place in Group A, behind the Netherlands and Germany (ahead of the Czechs because of the victory in the game between the two teams).

Sweden, 2-2 so far, plays winless Austria Wednesday evening, the last group A game.

As expected, the Netherlands, the best baseball nation in Europe, beat Sweden Monday. But the 14-2 score could have been worse.

The Dutch beat Austria 22-0.

Sweden scored its first runs again the Netherlands this millennium, when Adam Sorgi and Tony Dermendziev scored on Magnus Pilegård's fifth inning triple. They were also the first two runs scored against the Dutch in this tournament.

Sweden's offense has been the team's strength this tournament.

"We made 30 hits in three games," says team captain Kalle Knutsson. "We'ver never started a European championship so well."

The weak point has been pitching. Sweden is reportedly saving its best pitchers for Tuesday's decisive game against the Czech Republic. That game is at 15:00 hrs, and the following day the Swedes play winless Austria, currently in last place in Group A, at 20:00. Victories in both games are necessary for the Swedes to advance.

At the European Baseball Championships in Barcelona, Sweden lost its opening game Saturday to Germany 9-1. But the Swedes came back on Sunday to defeat Croatia 11-2, behind the solid pitching of Mattias Stenis.

On Monday the Swedes will face the Netherlands, the only European team to actually win a game at the World Baseball Classic. The other members of group A are Austria and the Czech Republic.

The winner of the tournament qualifies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics (possibly the last time baseball will be included as an Olympic sport). The second and third place finishers will take part in an intercontinental Olympics qualifier.

Complete results are here.

The four top teams in the Swedish Junior League will be fighting it out in next weekend's play-offs and finals, here in Stockholm. The schedule:

09:30 Semi 1 Stockholm-Eskilstuna
12:00 Semi 2 Leksand-Sundbyberg
14:30 The two losing teams play for third place
17:00 Final

For several years now Europeans have been able to watch Major League Baseball over a cable and satellite channel called the North American Sports Network. The offerings are great, but their customer service has turned dreadful!

A few years ago NASN was bought up by an Irish sports television operator called Setanta Sports. They (or at least NASN) was in turn recently acquired by ESPN. And the results have so far been rather negative.

The Setanta take-over was unfortunate for Sky Digital susbscribers, who instead of paying around 10 pounds a month for a channel of North American sports, had to pay 15 pounds a month for the less than interesting prospect of access to a handful of other channels with Irish sports. (Yawn...)

One of those two take-overs has also resulted in a degeneration of what was a perfectly acceptable customer service department.

A couple of years ago, when I needed to update my billing details, it was easy to do this through the NASN website. Recently when I tried to do this again, it proved impossible. E-mails and online contact forms were more or less ignored (that is, for every two e-mails there was a reply to the effect of "we don't pay any attention to e-mail").

I've heard of others who have received less than friendly telephone calls from Setanta Sports (even when the error was on Setanta's side).

It's unclear whether it is Setanta or ESPN that is responsible for the decline in customer relations. Customer service is handled by Setanta, while the ESPN press release only says they have bought NASN. So it seems that have outsourced customer services, at least for the time being.

I would like to think it is all Setanta's fault and the ESPN will now ride in and fix the whole mess. Maybe even more channels with just American sports? Maybe a baseball only channel? Maybe more access to our favorite teams, or at least our favorite divisions?

One can dream...

Karlskoga and Sundbyberg will face each other in the Swedish baseball finals in two weeks.

Karlskoga defeated Stockholm in two straight games Saturday, while Sundbyberg needed three games to win the best of three series against Tranås.

Stockholm, in its first play-off since returning to the Elite Division last year, was decisively defeated 19-1 in Saturday's opening game at Karlskoga. Despite injuries to two key players, Stockholm managed to make the second game much closer, before losing 15-12 (with the bases loaded as the game ended).

Sundbyberg beat visiting Tranås 6-3 in their opening game Saturday, but lost the second match-up 5-2. Tranås led Sunday's game 9-3 before Sundbyberg fought back to take the game and finals birth 10-9.

Karlskoga and Sundbyberg will face off as the best of five finals open in Sundbyberg September 22 and 23, with the final games the following weekend in Karlskoga.