European Federation Cup Finals
Saturday 7th June 2025 was a day for the British Baseball history books as last year’s NBL League Champions, Essex Arrows and the NBL Play Off Champions, London Mets, both reached their respective finals in Europe.
Whilst the Mets were in Norway playing for a place in next year’s European Federation Cup the Arrows were taking to the diamond in Sweden aiming for silverware and to become the first British side to win the WBSC European Federation cup.
Reports from both camps come from Brad Neal (Essex) and Joe O’Connell (Mets)
Photo by Johnny Muller
Arrows 6 - 1 Stockholm Monarchs (WBSC European Federation Cup Final)
The Swedish sun has set on the Essex Arrows trip to Europe and they return home as the first ever British team to win the WBSC Federations Cup.
The final was an almost perfect mix offence and defence, with the Arrows conceding just 1 run after scoring 6 from 11 hits and 2 walks.
Starter Josué Matos threw his 2nd complete game of the tournament, striking out 10 Monarchs on 107 pitches whilst walking just 3.
Arrows captain Angel Perez took home the tournament MVP trophy after hitting .529 and posting an OPS of 1.600, but two other Arrows (Julio Figuereo & Andrew Perez) also finished the tournament with OPS >1.600.
General Manager Brad Neal: “Having been out of Europe for 10-years, we certainly returned with a bang. Becoming the first British club to win this tournament is an accolade worthy of the team’s efforts, Eduardo (Manager) & the boys have worked extremely hard to make this happen. We won’t be stopping here, we last won be NBL in 2014, and now turn our attentions to re-capturing this crown.”
Photo by Stian Bøe
Mets 12 - 5 Kaunas County (WBSC European Federation Cup Qualifier Final)
For the 3rd time in 5 years the Mets would play for a championship. A repeat of Mondays matchup with Lithuania would see Mets ace Watanabe face off against the same arm from Kaunas County.
Unlike the first meeting of the teams it would be Kaunas who would jump ahead early with some strong hitting and a defensive miscue giving them a 3 run lead heading into the top 2nd.
However, it wouldn’t be long before the Mets would begin to chip away at the lead with Horwood hitting a ball deep over the left field fence in the 2nd before another clutch home run from McLaughlin would give the Mets a 6-4 lead through 4 innings. Derrick Cook would go to the bullpen following 5 strong innings from Watanabe and give the ball to Matteo Sollecito.
Momentum would rapidly shift towards the Mets with the final punch coming from a gigantic 3-home run from Cotton.
Matteo returning to the mound would close out the game with a final score of 12-5
