(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Euro League Baseball unveils provisional schedule for 2016
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
The European Association of Professional Baseball announced its Provisional Game Schedule for the inaugural season of Euro League Baseball, which is planned for 2016.
Opening Day of the new professional league is scheduled for Monday, April 4, 2016.
In a release on Tuesday (September 22), it is stated the ''the feasibilty of this 2016 schedule is still subject to discussion''.
It continues saying that ''ongoing talks with prospective sponsors, national federations and the EAPB Members are planned for this Fall''.
In the provisional schedule teams are paired up by country and play side by side home and away series, except for Bonn Capitals (Germany) and Draci Brno (Czech Republic).
This means that these pairs will be formed by L&D Amsterdam Pirates and Curaçao Neptunus (Netherlands), UnipolSai Bologna and T&A San Marino (Italy and San Marino), München-Haar Disciples and Buchbinder Regensburg Legionäre (Germany) and Rouen Huskies Baseball 76 and Templiers Sénart (France).
The Euro League Baseball provisional schedule for 2016 is subject to change and will be adjusted as needed.
The ten teams will play 4-game series from Monday through Thursday and play a total of 36 games in the season.
The teams will meet each other four times, two at home, two away.
While ELB-games are scheduled weekly, most teams have a week off between two series.
A few times, they have to play a 4-game series in consecutive weeks.
There are no ELB-games scheduled during the CEB European Champions Cup Tournament (May 31-June 5, 2016) and the European Baseball Championship (September 9-18, 2016).
The best-of-five Play-Off Series will start on August 29 while the best-of-five Championship Series is scheduled to start on September 23, after completion of the European Baseball Championship in Hoofddorp (Netherlands).
In the Play-Off format, the team that finishes in first place meets the fourth placed team, while the number two meets the number three.
The Play-Offs open with a double-header on August 29, followed by a travel day on August 30 and another double-header on September 1 with the fouth game of course to be played if needed.
At the same location, a fifth game will be played the next day, if needed.
The ELB Championship Series opens on September 23 at the site of the winners of the nr. 2 vs. nr. 3 series.
After the second game the next day, the teams will travel on September 25 to the site of the winner of the other Play-Off for the remainder of the series, with the third game scheduled for September 26.
In the Opening Week, the local teams will meet each other in a 4-game series.
In the Dutch match-up, Neptunus opens with two games at home against Amsterdam Pirates, which then will be the home team in the next two games.
In France, Rouen Huskies opens at home vs. Templiers Sénart.
In Germany, Regensburg Legionäre plays host to München-Haar Disciples and San Marino will open at home vs. Bologna.
After the first two games, the teams will move to the opponent's site.
The lone exception is that Draci Brno (Czech Republic) opens at home vs. Bonn Capitals (Germany) on April 4-5, then the teams have to travel to Bonn, where the next two games will be played on April 6-7.
The next round then begins on April 18.
In that week, Neptunus and Amsterdam will travel to Italy.
Neptunus then will the first two games at Bologna, while Amsterdam will be in San Marino.
On the third day, the teams switch places with Amsterdam playing in Bologna and Neptunus at San Marino.
(September 22)
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