European Super Cup Men 2016 is played at four fields in Italy; Azzano, Cervignano, Staranzano and Castions, August 29  – September 3.

Men’s Super Cup is a top-level European tournament, organized for the the best men’s fastpitch clubs.

The tournament consists of 18 teams from 8 European countries.

During the first three days, the competitors played their round robin games. Results of these games determined the round robin standings from which the teams were divided into two brackets: Super Cup bracket and ESF bracket.

These two brackets serve as two separate tournaments from now on and both brackets will have their own playoffs, final games and champions.

Top three teams from each round robin group advanced to the Super Cup bracket. Belgian Braves (5 – 0), Dutch Pioneers (5 – 0) and Italian Pro Roma (4 – 1) advanced to the top bracket from the first spot in their round robin groups, with only Pro Roma losing one game to Danish Bulls. The remaining six teams advancing to the Super Cup bracket are:

CZE U23 (4 – 1)

Hurricanes (DEN, 4 – 1)

Spectrum Praha (CZE, 4 – 1)

Bulls (DEN, 3 – 2)

Eagles (CZE, 3 – 2)

Tempo (CZE, 2 – 3)

The remaining teams will continue the tournament in the ESF bracket. They are:

Quick (NED, 2 – 3)

Pantheres (FRA, 1 – 4)

Junior Alpina (ITA, 2 – 3)

Medvedi (CRO, 1 – 4)

Adegeest (NED, 1 – 4)

Gladsaxe (DEN, 1 – 4)

Cavigal Nice (FRA, 1 – 4)

Chicaboo’s (BEL, 1 – 4)

Magos (ESP, 1 – 4)


Super Cup trivia

It is interesting to notice that none of the teams has lost all its games, everybody seized at least one win. 
There were two nine-inning games so far; Danish Hurricanes won 3 – 2 against Junior Alpina, which cost the Italian squad a spot in the Super Cup bracket. Another nine-inning game was played by Braves and Eagles, all runs of the game were scored in the ninth inning, Braves won 4 – 3.


Eldrick Dijkhoff at the European Championship Men in Montegranaro, Italy. Photo by Lauro Bassani

According to the stats, Hoofddorp Pioneers exhibit the best batting skills so far. However, despite placing last in the round robin groups, the best individual batter comes from the Spanish team Magos – Luiger Pinto Suarez. German Sacks, hit the most (5) homeruns wearing a Danish Hurricanes jersey. The most effective batter of the round robin part was Eldrick Dijkhoff of Pioneers, who created one of the top moments of the tournament when he hit a walk-off grandslam against the Danish Hurricanes, at the moment he's at 16 RBIs, 27 total bases and 11 runs (he also had the best batting average of all players at the European Men’s Championship earlier this year). Eldrick's team-mate Jaudiel Olaiz is leading the pitchers stats by keeping his era at 0.00 after 11 innings pitched in four games.

Follow the games live!
Some say that the tournament starts from this point on, so make sure to not miss a game, especially during the final two days when all games from Azzano will be streamed live for free!

Play by Play is available here

Link to live streaming is here

/cover photo by Vaclav Mudra/
-Helena Novotná-