The Netherlands had a sloppy start of the game, committing two errors in the top of the first inning, resulting in two unearned runs and an early deficit.
From the second inning, the Netherlands turned the game its way and registered another big victory.
In the first inning, Orange-starter Tim Halderman hit lead-off hitter Andrija Tomić with a pitch, then got the bases loaded when two errors were made.
First, a grounder by Kruno Gojković was misplayed, then a fly in the outfield from Vidrac Stancić was missed, giving Croatia three baserunners.
Halderman followed with a strikeout, but then gave up a 2-run single to Antonio Horvatić, that gave Croatia the lead.
The inning ended with a double play.
Viktor Amos Belin fouled out, then Stancić tried to advance to third base, but also was eliminated.
Halderman retired the side in the second inning, striking out two batters.
The Netherlands left a runner behind on second base in the first inning off of Croatian starter Hrvoje Jerbić, but then struck with six runs in the second at bat.
Jerbić gave up only four hits, but he walked nine batters.
Kendrick Delima led off the second inning with a double, then the bases got loaded when Rachid Engelhardt and Jelle Blaauw both walked.
Max Clarijs followed with a 2-run single to equal the score.
The bases were re-loaded when Nick Peels also walked and hereafter, Delano Selassa delivered a baseclearing, 3-run triple.
Shortly hereafter, he scored the sixth run himself on a sacrifice fly by Ruar Verkerk.
Croatia got one run back in the third inning, thanks to a runscoring double by Kruno Gojković, but the Netherlands added three more runs in its third at bat.
With two outs, the bases got loaded when Max Clarijs, Nick Peels and Delano Selassa all walked.
Ruar Verkerk followed with a 2-run single, which led to a pitching change.
New pitcher Karlo Kos saw another runner cross home plate when Denzel Richardson reached on an error, which made it a 9-3 score.
The Oranje-squad took more distance in the following innings to reach a 15-run difference.
In the fourth, Kendrick Delima led off with a single.
With two outs, the bases got loaded when Max Clarijs and Nick Peels walked, then two more runs were added on a single by Delano Selassa.
In the fifth, the lead was increased to 12-3 when Max Draijer homered with one out.
In the top of the sixth inning, Ismail Ross pitched for the Netherlands.
He retired the side, striking out two batters.
The 10-run difference (and more) was reached in the bottom of the sixth inning.
After Jelle Blaauw led off with a single, Damjan Zlatarek became the new Croatian pitcher.
He got the bases loaded when he gave up singles to Max Clarijs and Nick Peels.
They respectively scored when Delano Selassa reached on an error, Ruar Verkerk walked and Denzel Richardson singled.
With the bases still loaded, the first out was recorded via a force at the plate on a grounder by Max Draijer.
But hereafter, more runs were added on a wild pitch, a grounder by Kendrick Delima and a single by Rachid Engelhardt.
That lifted the lead to 18-3 and ended the game via the 15-run difference, mercy-rule.
The Netherlands collected 12 basehits in today's game, including two by Delano Selassa, Kendrick Delima and Max Clarijs.
Selassa batted in six runs, while Ruar Verkerk batted in four.
Clarijs scored four runs.
All nine starting players scored at least once and had at least one basehit.
Seven players had at least one run batted in.
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Netherlands Under-23 closes preliminary round with third win
BLANSKO / BRNO (Czech Rep.) / WELS (Austria) / TRNAVA (Slovakia) -
The Netherlands Under-23 Baseball Team closed the preliminary round of the European Under-23 Championship on Wednesday (August 9) with a 18-3 victory in six innings against Croatia.
With that, the Orange-squad recorded its third consecutive win to remain unbeaten and finish in first place in Pool A.
The team won 9-0 against Belarus in the opener on Monday, then added a 9-1 win against Russia on Tuesday.
By finishing in first place, the Netherlands will play its Quarter Final-game on Friday at 3 PM against Great Britain, which finished in second place in Pool B earlier today.
In Wels (Austria), the British team lost 4-1 to Spain, which remained unbeaten and won Pool B.
Spain meets Croatia on Friday in its Quarter Final.