(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Germany opens Yoshida Challenge with win
Nederlands
 SÉNART-LIEUSAINT (France) -
Germany opened the France International Baseball Tournament - Yoshida Challenge on Wednesday (August 31) with an 8-6 victory against host France.
While this was the first game of the event, it was an exhibition game and doesn't count for the standings.
The official tournament opens on Thursday.
The Netherlands Kingdom Team then plays its first game on Thursday-afternoon and meets Germany.
In the evening, France plays against the International Stars.
...Dutch Home Plate Umpire Martijn Bosschaart...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In this game, with Dutch umpire Martijn Bosschaart behind the plate, Germany took an early lead.
The first run was scored in the bottom of the first inning when Marcel Jimenez led off with a triple and scored on an one-out single by Max Boldt.
Germany doubled its lead in the next at bat on a grounder by Jimenez.
But France then came alongside in the third inning.
With one out, Norbert Jongerius walked and Felix Brown singled, resulting in runners on first and third base.
A steal-situation and a triple by Maxime Lefevre then tied the score.
France took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth when Jongerius reached second base on a throwing error and went on to score on a wild pitch.
Germany answered with two runs in its fifth thanks to a double by Chris Howard and a sacrifice fly by Jendrick Speer.
The Germans then added two more runs in the sixth.
This time, a sacrifice fly by Howard and a single by Lukas Jahn accounted for the runs.
In the seventh, the lead was lifted to 7-3 on a runscoring single by Chris Ziegler.
France narrowed the deficit to only 7-6 in the top of the eighth.
With runners on second and third base and one out, both runners scored on a single by Jorge Hereaud, whose pinch-runner Léo Jiminian later scored on a single by Luc Piquet.
Another single followed that loaded the bases and led to a pitching change.
Lukas Steinlein took over and retired the next two batters to end the inning, meaning three runners were left behind.
Germany added an insurance run in its eighth inning when Chris Howard led off with a homerun.
In the top of the ninth, France left two more runners and was left empty-handed.
(August 31)
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Game One French International Baseball Tournament - Yoshida Challenge.