First pitch in Baseball Bundesliga 2022 in the new edition of the final

188 days after the Wr. Neustadt Diving Ducks were able to lift the championship trophy for the first time in their club history, the Baseball Bundesliga starts in the new season. The first pitch of the season takes place on Friday evening in Wr. Neustadt in the new edition of the final against the Vienna Metrostars. On the long Easter weekend, there will also be three more duels in the tried-and-tested double-header format.

Vienna Metrostars – Wr. Neustadt Diving Ducks: 15.04. 7:00 p.m. in Wiener Neustadt AND 04/18/11:00 a.m. in Wr. new town

Diving Ducks versus Metrostars was the grand finale of the past season. After the opening success of the Viennese in last year’s “best-of-five” series, the later champions from Wr, Neustadt followed up with three narrow victories and thus crowned themselves champions of the Baseball Bundesliga for the first time in the club’s history. In the decisive fourth final meeting, the Viennese made the Ducks tremble after an early deficit. However, the Lower Austrians kept their nerve and finally prevailed on a full Ducksfield with 15:13. Now, of course, the Metrostars are dying for an early revenge. “We definitely haven’t gotten over the defeat in the final, but now we have another chance to correct the mistakes we made in the final last year,” said Benjamin Salzmann, 2nd baseman for the Metrostars. With Samuel Hackl, who switched to league rival ASAK, the Viennese are missing one of the key players of last year’s team this season.

the wr Neustädter, on the other hand, present themselves with an even deeper squad than in their championship season. With Melvin Perdue and Ryan Burnside, two experienced imports were signed. Alessandro Zoufal, who will spend a semester in Florence and with the Serie B club Fiorentina there, will not be available this season. Instead, three more youngsters are moving up with the Kreska Twins and Luca Holdhaus. The sixteen-year-olds already showed their potential in the preseason program. With this roster, Wr. Neustädter sees the mission of defending the title as successful.
The double header starts on Good Friday at 7:00 p.m. with a floodlight show in Wr. new town The second meeting will also be played at Ducksfield on Easter Monday at 11am.

Feldkirch Cardinals – Hard Bulls: April 16th. 1 p.m. in Hard and 16.04. 3:30 p.m. in Hard
The Hard Bulls are allowed to promptly invite to the derby double header at the start of the season. After finishing eighth last year, the Cardinals want to be at least the second-best team in the West this season. The Feldkirchers rely on consistency, as they start the championship with a similar squad as in the previous season. Head coach Trevor Rooper only relies on new forces with Jayson Wilbur (pitcher) and Matthew Reyes (catcher and infielder) for the imports. In order to achieve the goal, the plight of injuries from the start of the season in the last two years must not be repeated. “Our ultimate goal is to finish better than last year and to be the second best team in the west. For that we need to be able to throw more strikes, that’s the only way we can keep up with the other teams in Austria. But we’re well on the way to that in training. If we finally make it into the playoffs, then anything is possible,” says Moritz Widemschek, who posted 15 strikeouts in six appearances at the Mound last season, confidently.

The Hard Bulls also want to make the playoffs. With just six wins, the Hard Bulls didn’t go to plan last season. The Vorarlbergers missed the playoffs, with four wins from the last eight games they at least had a conciliatory end to the season. Hard left their local rivals from Feldkirch behind in the table last year, winning three out of six direct duels. There is potential for improvement, particularly in the games at the Ball Park am See in Hard. Last season there were only two wins in 14.

Schwechat Blue Bats – Traiskirchen Grasshoppers: 16.04. 1 p.m. in Traiskirchen AND 17.04. 1 p.m. in Schwechat
Another derby will be offered to fans of the Baseball Bundesliga on the Easter weekend in Traiskirchen and Schwechat. On Saturday, the Traiskirchen Grasshoppers will host the Schwechat Blue Bats, with the second leg following a day later. For the Grasshoppers, the past baseball Bundesliga season has already come to an end in the wild card games. Not least because of this, the expectations of the new season are all the higher. “As in previous years, we have high expectations of our team. I’m assuming that we’ll have a say in the title again this year,” explains pitching coach Manfred Heisler. Hardly any changes were made to the composition of the team – only the two imports from last season, Georgii Gvrytishvili and Albert Dominiguez, are no longer available. The Lower Austrians want to start the season with a purely red-white-red team, foreign players are only to be recruited at a later date. With Tobias Kiefer, the Grasshoppers still have the most valuable player of the past two seasons in their ranks. Back-to-back, the only 20-year-old secured the Regular Season MVP title. This is now also increasing the expectations of the current army athletes. At the season opener against the Blue Bats, the Traiskirchners accept their role as favorites without underestimating the Blue Bats.

The Schwechat Blue Bats start the 2022 season with a new team of coaches. Blue Bats founding member and former youth national team coach Daniel Jahn will be the head coach of the Lower Austrians in the coming season. Philip Weller, who previously coached the team, will in future focus on the organizational work as chairman of the club. Daniel Jahn is supported by Roland Spitzegger, a former Vienna Bulldogs player who has worked as a coach in the German Baseball Bundesliga in Bad Homburg for the past few years. And the new duo is definitely aiming for an improvement compared to the previous season. “Last season was definitely a learning process for us. We won a few games but could definitely have won more. We are confident about the coming season and hope to annoy one or the other team,” said Severin Schütz, who was at bat 85 times last season, recorded nine RBIs and hit four home runs.

Vienna Wanderers – ASAK Athletics: 16.04. 2:00 p.m. in Attnang Puchheim AND 4:30 p.m. in Attnang Puchheim
The ASAK Athletics invite the Vienna Wanderers to the first inter-divisional duel of the season. The federal capitals were able to win both duels against the Upper Austrians last season. Overall, there were two of 17 wins this season, which meant sixth place in the final standings. Due to a promising offseason, a lot more should be achieved this season. At least that’s how captain Georg Stemmer, who has been part of Wanderers since 2016, sees it: “Due to our good preparation and very good offseason, I hope that we will do better this season than last year. In any case, we gave it our all in preparation.” Head coach Hiroyuki Sakanashi is to help the Wanderers on their way back to the top. For the Japanese it will be the 14th season with the Viennese. He brought new racquets from his home country, which should drive the team to old peak performances.

The break at the ASAK Athletics was short – just a few weeks after being eliminated in the semi-finals, preparations for the new season began. “We were able to use our facility perfectly: we were able to play in the cage all winter and, thanks to the floodlights, we have been training outside for more than seven weeks,” head coach Andreas Lastinger is proud of his players, who are exposed to wind and weather in the units didn’t mind. With Sammy Hackl, the ASAK Athletics have secured plenty of home run power for the coming season. Despite his young age, Hackl is already in third place in the all-time list of the best in the Bundesliga. He also increased his tally by 10 home runs last season. But Hackl’s versatility is even more valuable: in recent years he has been used both as a pitcher and catcher, but also in various other field positions – and was able to convince. “I’m really looking forward to the season with the ASAK Athletics. The boys welcomed me with open arms and we are preparing intensively for the season. I’m looking forward to supporting the team and hopefully to be in the final again in the end, this time with the better end for my team,” said the long-time national player, who moved the center of his life to Upper Austria last autumn because of his studies.

Media info OJ

14.04.2022