Despite a short-term change of starter and an unexpected comeback by the Stuttgart Reds, league leaders Regensburg took their 17th win of the season.
Shortly before the game began, things suddenly got a little hectic in the Legionnaires’ dugout. Pitching coach Michael Wäller darted back and forth a few times, and it took a few minutes for the situation to calm down. The reason for the hustle and bustle was a last-minute change of starting pitcher. The Regensburg team decided not to use the originally planned Joe Cedano de Leon for health reasons. Pablo Guillen took over on the mound for him.
The team then got back on track pretty quickly. Guillen had the Stuttgart offense under control for six innings. The Legionnaires, on the other hand, got their first point in the first inning through Antonio Torres, who came home after a double by Terrell Joyce.
Homerun time in the Armin Wolf Arena (Photos: Walter Keller)
Joyce and Sacasa with home run
In the second inning, the hosts really got going. Alexander Schmidt opened the scoring, and Nino Sacasa followed. Terrell Joyce rounded off the inning with a juicy home run, his sixth of the Bundesliga season, over the fence to the softball field.
Two innings later, Nino Sacasa hit another solo home run. The start of a nice Regensburg rally. Antonio Torres scored after a single by Lou Helmig. Terrell Joyce and Lou Helmig then finished off a double by Marlon Jimenez. He then took advantage of a wild pitch from Stuttgart to get home himself.
Photos: Rene Thalemann, Walter Keller
Stuttgart is coming back
After the fifth inning, with a 9-0 lead, it looked more like a mercy rule than an exciting game. But that changed when the Legionnaires changed on the mound. Aljo Sujak didn’t really get into the game that evening. Two hit by pitches heralded Stuttgart’s comeback. After a double, Stuttgart scored two points, and a wild pitch later the next run was on the way.
Manager Martin Helmig had seen enough. He sent his star closer Nick Miceli onto the field. The new pitcher had to deal with a home run right at the start, which also brought two more Stuttgart players across the plate. Suddenly Stuttgart were back within two points.
Miceli stays cool
But one of Nick Miceli’s particular strengths is that he doesn’t let such incidents bother him and just keeps doing his thing. In the last two innings, Miceli didn’t allow anything else to happen. In his usual style, he used a variety of pitches, regularly tricking the Reds batters into swinging into empty space.
In the end, the closer once again delivered a confident performance, and the Guggenberger Legionnaires took their 17th win of the season in the Bundesliga. Number 18 is set to follow on Saturday. The game will start again at 2 p.m. in the Armin Wolf Arena. This time, hopefully, there will be no rush before the start.
2024-06-29 04:14:50
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