In the season-opener on Thursday, April 1, Stuttgart Reds recorded a big 22-1 win in a 6-inning game against IT sure Falcons Ulm.
Although it was a home-game for Falcons, the game was played under the lights at TVC Ballpark in Stuttgart.
Stuttgart had three rallies.
The team scored four runs in the top of the first inning, scored five in the fourth and rallied for ten runs in the sixth at bat.
Stuttgart collected 19 basehits, including four by Canadian Billy Germaine, who scored three runs.
Croatian Antonio Horvatic had two doubles, hit a homerun, scored five runs and batted in three.
Lefthanded pitcher Marcel Giraud dominated, struckout thirteen batters and gave up only one basehit in the five innings he pitched.
Falcons hit its first basehit in the bottom of the sixth inning when Lukas Antoniuk led off with a single off Giraud, who then relieved by Ruben Kratky.
Antoniuk advanced on a single by Michael Emerick and a advanced on a wild pitch and scored the team's lone run on a single by Efthimios Flüge.
Stuttgart also won big in the second game, which was played on the following Saturday at the home-site of Falcons in Ulm.
This time, the team won 22-4 in seven innings, scoring eleven runs in the sixth at bat.
Billy Germaine contributed with a 3-run homerun, while Venezuelan Xavier 'Xavi' Gonzalez Artega had four basehits and scored four runs.
American Elias Macias batted in six runs.
...Mike Bolsenbroek pitching for...
...Netherlands in the Olympic Qualifier...
...in 2019 in Bologna (Italy)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Reigning champion Heidenheim Heideköpfe opened the season at home with two wins against München-Haar Disciples.
These teams played their first games on Saturday and Sunday at Hellensteinenergie Ballpark in Heidenheim.
In the opener on April 3, the team won 13-3 in a 7-inning game.
Heideköpfe lead 9-0 after six innings, then Disciples scored three runs in the top of the seventh.
Moments later, the home-team rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh to reach a 10-run difference.
Mike Bolsenbroek started for Heidenheim and struckout seven batters in five innings, while giving up three basehits.
Patrick Seyfried and Lou Helmig then each threw one inning in relief.
Lou Helmig is the son of former player/coach Martin Helmig and the grandson of German baseball-icon Claus Helmig.
Heidenheim collected 14 basehits, including three by Phillip Schulz, Gary Owens and Shawn Larry.
Schulz scored four runs, Owens scored three.
Larry hit a double and a 3-run homerun, scored twice and batted in seven runs.
In the lone game played on Sunday, April 4, Heidenheim won 12-4.
Guggenberger Legionäre also opened the new season with two wins.
At the Baseballplatz in Tübingen, the team from Regensburg won its double-header against Tübingen Hawks with scores of 15-10 and 18-0.
In the opener, Legionäre rallied for seven runs in the first inning and led 11-1 halfway the fourth inning.
However, Tübingen then scored twice and rallied for six runs in the sixth to narrow the deficit to only 11-9.
The team was then held scoreless, while Regensburg added four more runs.
Legionäre collected 17 basehits, including two homeruns by Alexander Schmidt.
In the second game, Legionäre recorded an 18-0 shutout in a 4-inning, mercy-rule game.
This time, the team produced twelve basehits, including two doubles by Elias Von Garßen, who batted in two runs.
Winning pitcher Kaleb Bowman struckout six batters in four innings.
The American gave up only one basehit.
His No-Hitter ended with one out in the bottom of the fourth when Czech Kamil Pejchal singled.
Moments later, he was forced out.
...Peter Johannessen playing for...
...Mainz Athletics during the 2017...
...European Champions Cup...
...in Regensburg (Germany)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Mainz Athletics opened also opened its season with two victories.
At the Baseballstadion in Mainz, the team won 9-4 and 10-9 against Mannheim Tornados.
Leading 3-2 in the opener, Mainz decided the game by adding three runs in both the fourth and sixth inning.
Veteran player Max Boldt was 3-for-4 with a double and a homerun and batted in four runs.
Lennard Stöcklin also had three basehits.
In the second game, Mainz scored five runs in the first inning, four of them on a grand slam homerun by Nicolas Weichert.
The team led 7-0 after four innings.
Mannheim, one of the oldest baseball-clubs in Germany, came back and after eight innings, Mainz led only 9-8.
In the top of the ninth inning, Mannheim came alongside, but had a chance to take the lead.
With one out, Guatemalan Javier Lemus singled, then the team got runners on first and third base thanks to a bunt-single by Croatian Andrija Tomić, who stole second base moments later.
With one out, Juan Martin was walked intentionally.
The Argentinian/Mexican also is the Manager of Mannheim.
With the bases loaded, Rex Helmig struckout, but reached first base on a wild pitch, which enabled Lemus to score the tying run.
A force out then ended the at bat.
Like Lou Helmig (Heidenheim), Rex Helmig is the grandson of legendary German pitcher Claus Helmig.
Both are the second cousin of Jürgen Helmig, another German baseball-great and the brother of Claus.
Rex is the nephew of former player/coach Martin Helmig, who is the father of Lou.
In the bottom of the ninth, Nicolas Weichert singled with one out, advanced on a grounder and scored on a walk-off single by Caelan Sullivan to give Mainz the win.
Mainz had four homeruns in this game, including two by Swedish player Peter Johannessen, who was 3-for-4.
Max Boldt also homered for Athletics.
Last weekend, Heidenheim Heideköpfe added two more victories and Mike Bolsenbroek was the winning pitcher for the second time this season.
Heidenheim won 12-1 on Saturday, then 12-5 on Sunday against Mainz Athletics, which had won its first two games a week earlier.
Both games were played in Mainz
On Saturday (April 10), Bolsenbroek struckout seven batters in five scoreless innings.
The righthander gave up four basehits.
Mainz then scored its lone run in the sixth inning off of reliever Patrick Seyfried.
Heidenheim scored runs in six of the seven innings, including three in three at bats.
The lone scoreless at bat was the sixth.
The team collected twelve basehits, three by Shawn Larry, who hit his second homerun of the season and batted in five runs.
Ludwig Glaser also homered for the reigning champion.
...Sascha Lutz in 2010 playing...
...for Germany during the...
...European Championship...
...in Heidenheim (Germany)...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On Sunday, Heidenheim produced 13 basehits, including four homeruns.
Sascha Lutz was 4-for-6 and hit two homeruns.
Gary Owens and Samuel Tsopatalo also homered.
Maximilian Boldt homered for Mainz and batted in four runs.
Boldt also is the Manager of Mainz, the club for whom he plays in the highest league since 2004.
American lefthander Ross Vance struckout eight batters in six innings and also won his second game.
46-year old Cuban (with German nationality) Enorbel Márquez-Ramirez then threw the next three innings to earn a save.
The lefthander first played in Germany since 2004, then played five seasons in Italy since 2010 where he pitched for Rimini.
In 2015, Márquez returned to Germany.
Since 2007, he is a pitcher of the German National Team.
Guggenberger Legionäre added two victories last Saturday in its double-header against IT sure Falcons Ulm.
The team from Regensburg won big twice and recorded two mercy-rule wins.
In Ulm, Legionäre first won 20-1 in the opener, then 23-0 in the second game.
Both games lasted only six innings.
In the opener, Legionäre had a 6-run rally in the top of the sixth inning.
The team collected 15 basehits, including four homeruns.
Elias Redle hit two homeruns, including a grand slam in the third inning.
He scored three runs and batted in eight.
American David Grimes (who scored five runs) and Alexander Schmidt also homered.
Lukas Antoniuk accounted for three of the five Falcons-basehits.
In the second game, Legionäre scored seven runs in the second inning and had a 9-run rally in the sixth.
This time, the team had 20 basehits, including five by David Grimes, who hit for-the-cycle.
The American designated hitter had two singles, a double, a triple and a homerun.
He scored three runs and batted in six.
American Kaleb Bowman, who also is the Pitching Coach, struckout 14 batters in six innings and gave up only one basehit.
The righthander allowed only two batters to reach base.
In the third, he hit a batter with a pitch.
His No-Hitter ended with one out in the fifth when Thomas Geiger singled.
Bowman then closed with two strikeouts and also won his second game of the season.
This was Bowman's second one-hitter in a row.
Stuttgart Reds also won its third and fourth game last weekend.
On Saturday, the team won 13-3 in seven innings, then 9-6 against München-Haar Disciples at Ballpark Eglfing in Haar.
In the opener of the double-header, Stuttgart scored four runs in both the second and fifth inning.
Billy Germaine and Jonas Van Bergen both batted in three runs.
In the second game, Van Bergen homered and batted in four runs for Stuttgart.
The team collected eleven basehits, including three by Danilo Weber.
Croatian Kruno Gojković also homered for Stuttgart.
American lefthander Dustin Ward won his second game and struckout nine batters in five innings.
Mannheim Tornados, which had lost its first two games of the season, won twice last Saturday against Tübingen Hawks, which is one of the three winless teams.
At Roberto-Clemente-Field in Mannheim, the home-team won 10-5 and 14-1.
In the opening game, Mannheim collected 16 basehits.
Tübingen had eleven, including four by Luca Helber, who hit a 2-run homerun.
In the second game, Mannheim rallied for eight runs in the second inning and recorded 15 basehits in the 6½ inning game.
Argentinian Agustín Tissera Grafeuille was 4-for-4, including a triple and batted in three runs for Tornados.
Marvin Kulinna, playing Manager Juan Martin and Dominik Höpfner homered for the team from Mannheim.
American lefthander Victor Cole II struckout fourteen batters in six innings to win his first game.
His father was born in Leningrad in the former Soviet Union in what is now Saint Petersburg.
He also was a pitcher and became the ninth Russian-born player to play in the Major League when he played for Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992.
Cole senior (father from Sierra Leone, mother from Russia) also pitched three seasons in South Korea and in 2003, he pitched for the Russian National Team.
Currently, he is one of the coaches of the Russian team.
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German Bundesliga underway; Mike Bolsenbroek wins second game
HAAR / HEIDENHEIM AN DER BRENZ / MAINZ / MANNHEIM / STUTTGART / TÜBINGEN / ULM (Germany) -
The regular season went in the southern division of the German Bundesliga went underway on Thursday-evening, April 1.
With that, Germany became one of the first European countries to start its regular season in 2021.
Last weekend (April 10-11), the second round was completed.
In the southern constituent states Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate, it is currently allowed in both professional and amateur sport to conduct practice sessions and competitions.
Of course, with a health protocol, such as a social distance of 1,5 meter, and without spectators.
The eight teams in the Bundesliga Süd all play in these three states.
Heidenheim Heideköpfe, Mannheim Tornados, Stuttgart Reds, Tübingen Hawks and IT sure Falcons Ulm all play in Baden-Württemberg, München-Haar Disciples and Guggenberger Legionäre play in Bavaria and Mainz Athletics comes from Rhineland-Palatinate.
