The Dornbirn Indians are ready for the new season.
©Association
Baseball has resumed in all age groups.
Dornbirn. “With a new coach and desired player on the mission – 5th medal in a row,” it says for the Dornbirn Indians from this week. After dropping out in the semifinals last season, the Dornbirn Indians are starting the coming season with a new head coach, new players and a more flexible squad.
Last season, the Dornbirn Indians once again finished the regular season as the clear best team in the west and thus qualified directly for the semi-finals. The playoffs were over faster than the initial situation would have suggested. In a hapless semi-final series, the team from the Ländle had to admit defeat against the Vienna Metrostars with 0:3. This also ended the commitment of head coach Marin Pschorr, the first female head coach in the Austrian baseball league. “However, the change had nothing to do with the failure in the semifinals. It was already clear when signing that the Californian, who won the softball championship as a player with the renowned college UCLA, will only be available for one season,” emphasizes Wolfgang Pschorr from the club. She is now followed by the Canadian Graeham Luttor, who will probably also make short appearances as a player-coach. His main task in the Ländle is to lead the Bundesliga team and also the farm team to new successes as head coach.
But the Indians did not remain idle on the player market in the offseason either. With the Croatian Kruno Gojkovic, an athletic “shortstop” was signed, who had been a preferred candidate for the Dornbirn team since the 2019 Federations Cup. A move to Dornbirn didn’t work out last year. The Stuttgart Reds, Gojkovic’s second stop after the Ulm Falcons in the German Bundesliga, got ahead of the Indians. After a good season with the Reds, the 26-year-old Croatian played for his hometown club Olimpija Karlovac at the Federations Cup in Belgium and helped the Croatian club win and advance to the Confederation Cup (formerly CEB Cup). After three seasons in the German Bundesliga and numerous European Cups, the four-time A-Pool European Championship participant has now been lured to the Ländle.
Search for pitcher starts again
Actually, the Dornbirn Indians are already looking for a new pitcher and have also come to an agreement. However, the pitcher from Canada, who should have strengthened the Indians in 2022, informed the team at short notice that they would accept an offer from the USA and withdrew his commitment to the Dornbirn team. The search for a replacement is already in full swing.
The list of “newcomers” is completed with Moritz Riedmann and Alex Lambauer, who were permanently promoted from the Indians’ farm team to the squad of the Bundesliga team. Lambauer already played for the Bundesliga team from 2016-2018, but then withdrew due to part-time training. Riedmann made his first appearance last season in the semi-finals and is now an integral part of the Bundesliga team.
In addition to Joachim Frick and Dominik Golubiewski, who ended their careers, legionnaire Lochlan Southee is no longer in the Indians squad for the coming season. The 22-year-old Australian pitcher will be hunting for strikes with the RCH Penguins in Holland next season.
Dornbirn will start the new season hotly on April 23rd, not least because they will start with a “derby doubleheader” against the Feldkirch Cardinals. (cth)
Baseball Bundesliga – Feldkirch Cardinals – Dornbirn Indians, GRAWE Ballpark, Feldkirch
April 23 at 1:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m
