(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
      Rouen wins CEB Cup
Nederlands
  ROUEN / CHARTRES (France) -
Rouen Huskies has won the CEB Cup, one of the three European club-competitions, which were introduced this year in a new format.
On Sunday (June 5), Rouen won 5-2 against Les Barracudas Montpellier in an all-French final.
With the win, France promoted and now will have a spot in next years European Champions Cup, which was won by L&D Amsterdam Pirates (Netherlands) on Saturday.
The new set-up enables more European clubs to participate in European Cup-tournaments.
There are three levels with promotion and relegation-possibilities.
The new set-up replaces the two-tournament format in which teams played only for the European Champions Cup.
With that, the current set-up is a return to the original format of three European Cup-levels, as it existed before 2008.
Back then, teams played for the European Cup, the European Cup Winners Cup and the CEB Cup.
The current level is headed by the European Champions Cup, followed by the CEB Cup and the Federations Cup.
On June 21, the tournament for the Federation Cup opens in Brno (Czech Republic) with the winning country of that event promoting to the CEB Cup.
Besides the Final, two other games were played on Sunday, the final day of the CEB Cup.
At Rouen, White Lynx Minsk from Belarus won 7-2 against Vienna Wanderers from Austria.
Minsk broke an 1-1 tie in the fourth inning by scoring two runs, thanks to a double by Dzmitry Viarzhbitski.
The team added two more runs in the fifth on singles by Anton Pryputnevich and again Viarzhbitski.
A single by Ryoma Watanabe accounted for an Austrian run in the fifth, but Minsk took more distance by scoring runs again in the seventh and ninth inning.
In the seventh, Viarzhbitski batted in another run with a single, while a single by Kestas Vilimas brought in the run in the ninth at bat.
Vienna initially had taken an 1-0 lead in the first inning on a 2-out homerun by Ryoma Watanabe.
Minsk came alongside in the second on a double by Viarzhbitski, who was 4-for-5 with two doubles and batted in five runs.
Vilimas scored four runs and had three basehits.
With this loss, the Austrian spot relegated to the Federation Cup.
At Chartres, an all-Croatian game was played for the bronze medal at Terrain de Gellainville, which is located in Gellainvile, a community within the arrondissement of Chartes.
Olimpija Karlovac won 5-3 against Nada Split to win the bronze medal.
Karlovac scored three runs in the top of the third inning.
The first two runs were scored on errors, then a sacrifice fly by Antonio Horvatic made it 3-0.
Karlovac added a run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Ross Vukovich, which ended in a double play.
The team also left three runners behind, but then scored another run in the fifth in a steal-situation.
The suspense came back in the game when Split scored two runs in the sixth and narrowed the deficit to only 5-3 in the seventh.
A triple by Dario Colovic and a passed ball accounted for the runs in the sixth, then an error led to the run in the seventh.
However, Split was unable to turn the game around, as it reached base only one more time in the final two at bats.
Antonio Horvatic went the distance for Karlovac and struckout 16 batters, while giving up only three basehits.
At Rouen, the final was played by the two leading teams from France, Rouen Huskies and Les Barracudas Montpellier at Terrain Pierre Rolland, the home site of the Huskies.
Last year, the two teams faced each other in the final series for the French championship, which was won by Rouen.
After completion of that series, Rouen's longtime catcher Boris Marche retired.
In his long career, Marche had won eleven French championships with Rouen.
He also had been the captain of the French National Team.
Rouen opened the score in the third inning.
Andrew Medeiros then singled with one out and scored on a 2-out single by Maxime Lefevre.
In the fourth, three runs were scored by the team of Manager Keino Perez, who himself frequently still pitches during the regular season.
Jonathan Jaspe and Anthony Piquet led off with singles, then both scored on a double by Bastien Dagneau.
The latter scored the third run in the at bat on an error.
In the seventh, Rouen scored its fifth run.
Larry Infante, who had been very productive for the team in this tournament, led off with a double and scored on an one-out single by Anthony Piquet.
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...Stenar van Groningen Schinkel & Henri van Heijningen...
(© Photos: Henk Seppen) |
Rouen-starter Yoann Vaugelade held Montpellier scoreless in the seven innings he pitched.
He struckout four batters and gave up four hits, but hereafter, his relievers gave up two runs.
In the eighth, Montpellier scored its first run on a grounder by Simon Vicente.
In the top of the ninth, Montpellier got the bases loaded with no outs, which led to a pitching change.
Anthony Piquet then became the fourth pitcher for Rouen and he began with a strikeout, but then gave up a runscoring single to Samuel Vandry, making it a 5-2 score.
With the bases still loaded, it meant that the tying run was at first base and the go-ahead run came to bat.
But two flyouts followed to end the inning and the game.
Two Dutch umpires were active in the final.
Stenar van Groningen Schinkel was behind the plate, while Henri van Heijningen was at first base.
They were joined by Italian Alessandro Maestri, who was the 2B Umpire, and Fabien Carrette-Legrand from France at third base.
Final Standings
1. Rouen Huskies (France), 2. Les Barracudas Montpellier (France), 3. Olimpija Karlovac (Croatia), 4. Nada Split (Croatia), 5. KNTU Elizavetgrad (Ukraine) / Zurich Barracudas (Switzerland), 7. Minsk (Belarus), 8. Vienna Wanderers (Austria).
(June 5)
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