How Coach Phil Richmond took Poland to the Pool B European Championship.
In Kutno, Poland during July, the U18 Polish National Team took the field in Pool B alongside Ukraine, Sweden, Switzerland, and Lithuania. Poland was the lowest rated team in the event, coming in at 63 while Lithuania was 43, Switzerland was 41, Ukraine was 34, and Sweden led the pool at the 32nd rank. Despite the lowest ranking, Team Poland was confident in their ability to play. Coach Phil Richmond led his team for the first time in this EuroBaseball Tournament.
Phil Richmond was described to me as a Midwest local from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and a Judson University graduate, with a no-tolerance policy when it comes to nonsense. Coach Dom Olech told me “Phil is well respected in all of Poland as he continues to dominate the Polish baseball league as a player and as the head of Club Centaury in Warsaw. Young players in Poland look up to Phil as a player, which makes it easy for them to listen to him as a coach as well.”
I had the opportunity to ask Coach Richmond a few questions about this experience and the U18 team. Let’s see how that conversation went!
- Ian: “You were the lowest ranked team at this tournament… expectations were low. How did you approach this tournament to get the most out of your players?
- Coach Richmond: “Pitching was going to be our biggest weakness. I thought it would be a struggle to work innings with our pitchers, but fortunately, we were able to line up our pitchers in the best situations possible. Pitching locked down a few games for us in this tournament. When I look back now, we weren’t the best in any category (hitting, pitching, fielding), but we had a huge advantage in baserunning. We had a lot of steals, we were aggressive on the basepaths and didn’t make many mistakes on the bases. That gave us momentum when we needed it.”
- Ian: “What can we expect from your teams moving forward?”
- Coach Richmond: “It’s hard to say because we don’t get much time to work together as a team. We’re going to use some camps to identify players that we can add to the team that can help us. A lot of players from this team are going to be returning, which is great. The identity that I’ve noticed with teams that I coach, we really do a good job of being aggressive on the bases, always taking the edge without being reckless. Also, the pitching has always held up… I don’t like letting one guy go out and bear the weight of the team, I’d prefer a quick hook. I think you’ll see pitching start to play above their skill level because I really value momentum, so if I see it moving towards our opponents hitters, I’ll make a change because I want the players to feel the momentum as well.
- Ian: “What does this tournament result tell you about your team and its future?”
- Coach Richmond: “A lot of these players were only 16 years old and did quite well. This result tells me that we have enough talent in Poland to compete at the highest level.”
The Men’s Polish National team took second place in Prague Baseball Week, a week before the U18 event took place, which allowed a lot of confidence in the younger players. Dom Olech, a Polish Men’s Team Member and U18 Assistant Coach told me, “The senior team’s second place performance at Prague Baseball Week allowed the squad to climb 14 spots in the world rankings. While we are happy to see a positive trend, we don’t want to settle for being ranked 51st in the world. We have ambitions to make a run for the Olympics and World Baseball Classic.” This attitude and fired up mentality showed as the U18 team bought into it.
The U18 team, despite being the lowest ranked, came out with a tight win in game one over Ukraine 4-3. Great pitching performances saw Wiktor Mantorski, Nikodem Kieruńczak, Marcel Słomian combine for 13 strikeouts over 7 innings, and Marceli Buchacz homering to deep left field. A strong showing across both aspects of the game, pitching and hitting, allowed Poland to start the tournament 1-0.
The second game, coming against Switzerland, was a 10-5 win for the Polish U18 team. The strong hitting of Justin Zdeb who hit a homer, Jakub Lenhart who had a hit and 2 RBIs, and again Marceli Buchacz who added a double and two RBIs. The pitching staff held the Switzerland team to only 5 runs through 7 innings, and racked up 10 strikeouts. Both teams allowed 8 walks, but Poland was able to reduce the damage of those walks. The pitching staff was led byNikodem Kieruńczak who picked up the win for the Polish team, followed by Marcel Słomian and Wojciech Węcłaś picking up 3 strikeouts each. A decisive 14-0 win against Lithuania in Game 3 sent Poland into the championship game in Pool B, regardless of the outcome of their fourth game, when they played Sweden who was able to shut down the Polish offense in a 1 hit-shutout in 5 innings.
The championship game came on July 12th, when Poland would once again play Sweden for the title of Pool B Champion and an automatic qualification to the U18 European Championships, which had only been achieved once in Polish National Baseball history, in 2006. Before I tell you the result, I want to tell you a bit about the baseball culture in Poland. The city of Warsaw is the hub for Poland National Sports. It has over 1.8 million residents, and not a single baseball field. That would be comparable to going to Phoenix, and not having a single baseball field to work out on or practice on. Teams are limited on when and where to play games, and some clubs only get to use an actual field when they travel for games, because most cities in Poland do not have a baseball field.
I was able to have a conversation with federation president Grzegorz Białas about baseball in Poland and where it’s headed… he told me, “The number of baseball teams in Poland has been steadily growing since 2017 and thanks to the creation of the independent Baltic League, players with less experience had a chance to get more opportunities to play the game in a competitive, yet budget friendly environment. One of the next steps for the Federation is to merge the two leagues and increase the number of licensed players, coaches and umpires using the same budget friendly model and creating playing opportunities for new amateur teams that are currently at the early organizational stages.
The Federation is also planning to release an app which will be available for anyone that wants to learn how to play or coach baseball – it will be designed specifically for parents, school teachers and individuals who want to start playing baseball and need the basic information on how to set everything up from the scratch. Once the league is reformed, we will aim to promote the games trying to win new potential fans using the widest array of communication tools that we can afford, from social media to video ad campaigns in public transport across the country. We will also try to host an annual series of events at different schools where kids and teachers will have a chance to learn about the basics of the game and nearby teams.”
The championship game was electric. Justin Zdeb, the only United States import player on the Polish team, hit a home run as he went 3-3 with 2 RBIs, and David Smeda added an RBI as well. The Polish offense had brought in all of their runs in the tournament in the first 4 innings, until this championship game. The Polish team went down early, 2-1 to the Swedish team, but scored 3 unanswered runs to go ahead 4-2. Wiktor Mantorski pitched a great game, allowing 2 runs on errors while adding 3 strikeouts, and Marcel Słomian added on 3 strikeouts, including the final out of the game, sealing the Gold Medal and automatic qualification for the Polish team to the European Qualifiers.
Federation President Grzegorz Białas said, “I think the success of the U18 national team is very important for (Poland) especially in the era of social media and peer pressure, where a lot of young players lose interest in the game way too early. It gives us hope that this group of players can actually strengthen the senior team in the next couple of years and competing in Pool A next year will definitely be a very valuable experience for them. Realistically speaking, these players can have the greatest impact on how our senior national team looks like in almost a decade.”
As someone who merely watched the games, watched along on social media, and truly bought into the Polish National Culture… I can truly say that I am very excited to see where this team goes moving forward. I think they have the ability to make some noise and upset some teams at the European Championships and Coach Phil Richmond and his staff are a big reason as to why. Powodzenia to the U18 Polish National Baseball team at the European Championships!
The upcoming U18 European Championship is scheduled for July 13-19, 2026, at host sites in Spain and Belgium. I’ll be following those games, so subscribe for coverage and more baseball content like this!
Ian M. Ryan is a journalist from Oak Forest, Illinois. He follows high school, college, and professional sports.