Veteran James Starek shines against Stuttgart.
© Archiv/Michael Lukaszewski
Füssen – The “Füssen Royal Bavarians” clinched their third double win in a row against the “Stuttgart Reds II” on Sunday. The Füssener won 12:10 and 10:3.
The “Stuttgart Reds II”, currently second to last in the 2nd Baseball Bundesliga, did not play the baseball of a relegation candidate, but presented themselves in Füssen fighting and technically at the highest level. Reinforced with a few young players from the first team of the “Reds”, the Swabians demanded everything from the “Royals”.
When Moritz van Bergen entered the throwing mound for the “Stuttgart Reds”, the people from Füssen already knew that it wouldn’t be easy. The 18-year-old is normally a regular Bundesliga player and made his first appearance of the season in the Reds’ reserve team. At first, however, Füssen was unimpressed and loaded the bases in the first inning with Brayden Carpenter, Thomas Haf and Silvan Zacek. Johannes Krumm then sent the first pitch deep into the outfield and brought all three runners home – 3:0 feet.
After that it was quiet on the scoreboard. Both van Bergen and Daniel Mendelsohn on the Füssen side kept the opposing offensive lines short. Mendelsohn showed his best performance of the season to date that day. Only in the fifth round did the guests bring the first points on the scoreboard with a home run. But Füssen countered with three more runs (points) from Haf, Zacek and Krumm. While van Bergen’s working day was already over after four “innings”, Mendelsohn left the pitcher’s mound for Füssen after six rounds and an interim 9:3. Lorenzo Metschke took over for Fussen.
Offensive is gaining momentum
From then on, the game opened up a bit on both sides and the offensive lines got going again. Stuttgart repeatedly fought its way into dangerous proximity and trumped with a total of four “home runs” on that day. Metschke did well and kept the lead for the “Royals”. Florian Wagner took over the last two rounds. He also showed his best performance of the season and sealed a narrow but deserved 12:10 victory for Füssen.
“Today we just played really good baseball. Offensively we fought our way forward ‘Run’ for ‘Run’, defensively we were good and the ‘pitching’ (throwing – editor’s note) did an excellent job today”, coach Mitch Stephan praised his team.
Experienced shines
In the second game of the day, veteran James Starek shone with a strong performance. Again it was the Füsseners who took a 1-0 lead in the first round thanks to a hit by Zacek. After that, the strong defense from the first game faltered a bit. Three field player errors led to a deficit of 1:3 up to the fourth “inning”.
Only at the end of the fourth round did the knot burst in the Füssen offensive. Punches from Christian Brunner, Mendelsohn, Chris Kleber, Carpenter and a big “double” from Zacek pulled the game on Füssen’s side, so that after four rounds it was 7:3 for Füssen. Starek brought the game to an end in the best manner without further points from Stuttgart and Füssen increased the score to 10:3 towards the end.
“The boys flipped the switch just in time in the fourth ‘inning’ and upped the ante. James (Starek – editor’s note) was legendary again on the throwing hill and was the cornerstone of success,” said Stephan.
Due to the national cup in Füssen, the Bundesliga is taking a week’s break and will only play in Munich on Saturday, June 25th. Then it’s off to the “Munich Caribes”, who are currently in tenth place in the table, just ahead of Stuttgart.
