(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen & Regensburg Legionäre)
  Amsterdam Pirates opens 3-game series vs. Regensburg with win
Nederlands
 REGENSBURG (Germany) -
The team of L&D Amsterdam Pirates opened the 3-game exhibition series against Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg tonight (Friday, March 27) with an 11-8 victory, but was outhit 16-14.
In the morning, the Amsterdam-squad flew to Munich in Germany, then from there traveled north to the city of Regensburg, which is an one-hour-20-minutes ride (128 km).
There, the team checked into its hotel and in the evening played its first of three games.
...Ivan Rodriguez...
(© Photo: Legionäre) |
Regensburg Legionäre will be coached this season by Venezuelan-born Ivan Rodriguez Rodriguez, who was the Head Coach of Mr. Cocker HCAW in the last two years in the Dutch big league.
Mike Bolsenbroek, who made his debut in the Netherlands National Baseball Team last year, is one of the pitchers on the roster of Regensburg.
The team has five players on its roster who last year played for the German National Team in the European Championship, being Ludwig Glaser, Christopher Howard, Philipp Howard, Lukas Jahn and Wolfgang Reiter.
The first four are veteran players, who played for Germany on several international events, including World Championships.
Reiter made his debut in the national team last year after having been a member of the national junior team.
The German squad finished in third place in the preliminary round, which was played in Regensburg, to qualify for the play-off round in the Czech Republic.
There, Germany ended up in fifth place in the final ranking.
Also playing for the squad is American infielder Matt Vance, who played for Harvard University, but he already plays for Regensburg since 2009.
Another experienced player on the roster for Regensburg is catcher Kai Gronauer, who played professionally the last seven years in the organization of the New York Mets.
Last year, the 28-year old Gronauer played in 30 games in Double-A and Triple-A combined.
Tonight, Gronauer homered for Regensburg.
Last year, there were eight players with the German nationality playing professionally.
Besides Gronauer, Maik Ehmcke (Rookie League, Arizona Diamondbacks), Julsan Kamara (Rookie League, Philadelphia Phillies), Max Kepler (Single-A, Minneota Twins), Daniel Thieben (Rookie League, Seattle Mariners), Sven Schuller (Rookie League, Arizona Diamondbacks) and Markus Solbach (Single-A, Arizona Diamondbacks) also played in the minor league.
The eight player is American-born German Donald Lutz, who has played 62 games in the Major League in 2013 and 2014 with the Cincinnati Reds.
During this years Spring Training, Lutz and Kepler played for respectively the Reds and Twins.
In October, 16-year old Nadir Ljatifi from Paderborn signed a contract.
Last weekend, Amsterdam Pirates shutout German champion Solingen Alligators twice, 6-0 and 8-0.
Regensburg played three games last weekend against Kotlarka Praha from the Czech Republic.
In the first game, on Friday-evening, Regensburg won 10-1.
The next day, a double-header was played.
Regensburg then lost 5-4 in 7 innings, while the other game ended in a 6-6 tie in 6 innings.
(March 27)
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