(Story & Photo by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Three teams remain unbeaten in German Bundesliga
Nederlands
    HAAR / REGENSBURG / TÜBINGEN / ULM (Germany) -
Heidenheim Heideköpfe, Guggenberger Regensburg and Stuttgart Reds remained unbeaten last weekend in the third round of the regular season in the German 1.Bundesliga Süd, which opened on April 1.
The season in the 1.Bundesliga Nord is scheduled to begin on May 8.
Germany was the first European country to open its regular baseball-season this year.
The Czech Republic followed on April 9, Spain and Austria on April 10.
Other countries will begin the 2021 season in the coming weeks.
The regular season in the Netherlands will begin on April 29, Italy opens on May 21, France on June 6.
German champion Heidenheim Heideköpfe won its double-header against IT sure Falcons Ulm on Saturday.
The first game in Ulm ended with a big 18-2 score in a 4-inning, mercy-rule outcome, the second game was won 10-4.
Netherlands National Team-pitcher Mike Bolsenbroek threw only one inning in the double-header.
In the first two rounds of the season, the righthander started two games for Heideköpfe, both times threw five innings and was the winning pitchers in both games.
In Saturday's opener, Heidenheim scored seven runs in the second inning and rallied for eight more in the fourth.
The team collected ten basehits, including three by veteran player Simon Gühring, who also homered, scored three runs and batted in seven.
Shawn Larry homered twice.
In the second game, Gühring hit two homeruns for the reigning champion and batted in five runs.
The 37-year old catcher/third baseman also is the Assistant Coach of Heidenheim.
In 2004, Gühring played in the Dutch big league for ADO.
Gühring plays for the German National Team since 2001.
In 2002, he briefly played professionally in a Rookie League-team of the Milwaukee Brewers.
In Saturday's double-header, Gühring batted 6-for-9, scored five runs, batted in twelve, hit one double and three homeruns and also stole a base.
...Simon Gühring...
(© Photo: Marco Stoovelaar) |
In the second game, Bolsenbroek took over the pitching from American starter Ross Vance and threw the sixth inning.
He then began with a strikeout.
With one out, Michael Emerick reached base for Falcons on an error, but Bolsenbroek then struckout the next two batters.
Stuttgart Reds won twice against Tübingen Hawks.
Playing in Tübingen, the team won 15-2 on Friday-evening, then on Saturday, 10-3.
On Friday, Stuttgart collected 13 basehits, including a grand slam homerun by American Billy Germaine.
Tübingen recorded only one basehit off of four pitchers.
The next day, the team produced 15 basehits, including four by Croatian Kruno Gojković.
Guggenberger Legionäre played its first home-games of the season in Regensburg at the Armin-Wolf-Baseball-Arena, which is a frequent used site for international tournaments.
The team won its fifth and sixth game of the season against Mannheim Tornados.
On Saturday, Legionäre won 6-2 on only three basehits.
In the second game on Sunday, Regensburg won 10-3.
In Saturday's game, trailing 2-0, the team came alongside in the fourth, then took a 4-2 lead in the next at bat.
Regensburg hit two of its three hits in the fourth inning, which contributed to the tying runs.
In the fifth, two batters walked and went on to score on two consecutive sacrifice flies with the bases loaded.
In the seventh, Lukas Jahn batted in a run with a double, then scored himself on another sac-fly.
München-Haar Disciples and Mainz Athletics played two close games in their double-header on Saturday and split.
Disciples won the opener with a 7-6 score, then Mainz won 6-5 in the second game.
In the first game, Disciples trailed 4-0 halfway the fourth inning, but narrowed the deficit to 4-3.
Trailing 6-4, the home-team rallied for three runs in the seventh to turn the game its way.
With one out, the team came alongside on a single by David Dinski and a double by Daniel Patrice.
With two outs, the latter scored the go-ahead run on a single by Miguel Pineiro.
In the second game, the deciding run was scored in the top of the ninth on an error.
(April 20)
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