(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Karlovac and Rouen lead in CEB Cup
Nederlands
  ROUEN / CHARTRES (France) -
Olimpija Karlovac (Croatia) and Rouen Huskies (France) are leading respectively in Pool A and Pool B of the CEB Cup after the second day of competition of the event, which is held in France.
Theoretically, Karlovac and Rouen are still not sure of a spot in the semi-finals, as a three-way tie in possible after completion of Day 3 on Friday.
However, both teams have the best papers to reach the final four.
The new CEB Cup-tournament went underway in the historic French cities of Rouen and Chartres on Wednesday.
The country of the winning team of this event will promote to the European Champions Cup, which is currently underway in Italy and San Marino.
Olimpija Karlovac opened Day 2 on Thursday in Rouen with a 15-9 win against Vienna Wanderers from Austria.
The Croatian squad led only 5-4 after five innings, then trailed 7-5 after seven at bats.
Vienna scored three runs with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
A single by Samuel Hackl tied the score, then an error and a double by Moritz Mayr made it 7-5.
Karlovac anwered with a 7-run rally on only three hits with two outs (!) in top of the eighth inning to decide the game.
With one out and the bases loaded, a force play-grounder brought in a run.
Hereafter, the bases got loaded again, then Phil Smith delivered a 2-run single to give the Croatians a renewed lead.
The bases then got loaded for the third time and two runs were added on a 2-run single by Antonio Horvatic.
A hit batter gave Karlovac a basesloaded-situation for the fourth time in this at bat and again two runs were scored when Mitch Keim delivered a 2-run single.
That lifted the score to a comfortable 12-7 lead.
In the ninth inning, Nikola Sertic added a 3-run homerun.
Andrew Oberthaler scored five runs for the Austrian team.
...Melissa Mayeux...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In the next game in Rouen, Barracudas Montpellier (France) won 14-2 against Minsk (Belarus).
The French squad ralied for four runs in the fourth at bat and scored six in the sixth inning.
Montpellier collected 12 basehits, including three by Clement Lepichon, who also batted in three runs.
Will Musson (2-run) and Eric Herman (3-run) homered for Montpellier in the sixth inning.
17-year old Melissa Mayeux played at second base for Montpellier and was 0-for-3.
In the first game on Wednesday, she only played defensively in the ninth inning.
The talented Mayeux is the first female player to participate in an European Cup baseball- competition.
Last year, it was reported that she even might sign a professional contract.
She then participated in the MLB European Elite Camp in Hoofddorp (Netherlands) to become the first female to participate in the MLB Elite Development Program.
In Chartres, Nada Split (Croatia) won 12-1 against Barracudas Zürich (Switzerland).
Leading 6-1, the Croatians scored six runs in the seventh inning to reach a mercy-rule run-difference.
Nada Split collected 12 basehits, including five by Andrija Tomic, who scored twice.
Dutch player Jeroen Hermans accounted for one of the three Swiss basehits.
Trevor Caughey went the distance for Nada Split and struckout seven batters.
Rouen Huskies closed Day 2 with an 11-1 win against KNTU Elizavetgrad (Ukraine).
Rouen needed only one inning to score, as it rallied for eleven runs in the first at bat!
In the remainder of the 6½ inning-game, Rouen added only two more basehits off of Mykola Liakhovetskyi, who took over the pitching with two outs in the first inning.
Rouen collected nine basehits, including three by Andrew Medeiros and Oscar Combes.
Larry Infante homered twice (!) in the first inning, both accounting for three runs.
In the first game on Wednesday, Infante also had a major contribution, scoring four runs and batting in eight in the 17-0 win against Nada Split.
(June 2)
|
