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Cardiff repeated as the first place finisher in the European Second League’s Western Conference, hoping this time it would earn them a promotion. The Crew took it at 106-56, fending off a strong challenge by 103-59 Seville. The Stingrays picked up their third consecutive playoff berth.

Stockholm (96-66) and Liverpool (94-68) took the remaining playoff spots with a steep drop to fifth place Belfast at 86-76. The Swordsmen earned their first berth since getting relegated to E2L for 2019. Liverpool earned their first berth since 2015 and is one of the few teams that have never been promoted even once. The Phantoms set a new E2L record with 62 triples as a team.

In the Double Round Robin, Stockholm had the best finish at 5-1 to advance to the Western Conference Championship. Seville joined them with a 3-3 finish, while top seed Cardiff and Liverpool were both ousted at 2-4. The Stingrays then routed the Swordsmen 4-1, sending Seville back to the European Baseball Federation’s Elite tier after an eight year stay in the Second League.



Gothenburg for the first time had the top record in the Eastern Conference at 102-60, earning their second playoff spot in four years. Last year’s #1 seed Chisinau took second at 99-63. It was a tight battle for the remaining two playoff spots with Riga finishing third at 95-67. The Roosters hadn’t been a playoff team since 2010.

Lodz and Odesa finished tied at 94-68 for the final spot, while Varna (92-70), Tallinn (90-72) and Sarajevo (88-74) each fell short. The Legion won the tiebreaker game over the Drifters to give Lodz back-to-back wild cards. They have five playoff appearances in seven years, but remain one of the squads to never be promoted. Athens, a wild card last year, fell to 77-85.

Riga surprised many by taking the best record in the Double Round Robin at 4-2. Top seed Gothenburg and Chisinau were 3-3 and Lodz went 2-4. The tiebreaker pushed the Counts forward, who then clobbered the Roosters 4-0 in the Eastern Conference Championship. Chisinau earned its second promotion after being back in E2L for only two years.



In an exciting Second League Championship, Seville outlasted Chisinau in a seven game classic. The Stingrays had also won it all in 2006, joining Valencia as the only two-time E2L champs. No extra teams would be relegated from the EBF Elite in 2022, meaning Seville and Chisinau were the only teams to earn promotion.



Other notes: Bratislava was booty at 52-110, scoring the fewest runs in E2L history at 361. They also had the second fewest homers (73) and the second worth batting average (.193) and slugging percentage (.274) in Eastern Conference history to that point. Their .260 OBP was an all-time EC worst as well.

Sarajevo’s Zurab Karpenko became the first E2L player with 500 career home runs, finishing his final season with 508. He would also retire as the E2L leader in RBI (1274) and WAR (106.94). Lodz’ Yuriy Naichukov won his third MVP in a row, joining Karpenko as the only three time MVPs in E2L.