16. August 2022
1:04 p.m
Regensburg.The Guggenberger Legionnaires made no secret of their goal for the season. Finally reaching the final again was the minimum that the Regensburg baseball players had set themselves as a goal for 2022. Quite a few players and those responsible spoke openly about the championship. However, this dream once again came to an abrupt end. Not Heidenheim, not Bonn, but the Untouchables Paderborn put the country’s largest baseball club into shock. The six-time Bundesliga champion won the best-of-five semi-final series 3-2.
After the division of victories at the Pader, the Schwabelweiser started the home games with the better cards. A 2:3 defeat on Saturday already put the ambitions of the Upper Palatinate in jeopardy. An 11:1 victory followed on Sunday. In the decisive fifth game, the home side were again at a disadvantage with 0:6. With Paderborn and the Bonn Capitals, two clubs from the Nordstaffel are in the final of the German baseball championship for the first time since 2005. Since 2006, a team from the north of the republic has only been able to win the cup twice.
Promising start
The weekend started quite promising for the legionnaires. Having learned their lessons from the messed-up start at the away appearance, in which coach Tomas Bison’s team quickly fell 0:5 behind, the Upper Palatinate got off to a good start in front of their home crowd. Carl Wenzel and Lukas Jahn sent Nino Sacasa and Elias von Garßen home with their shots to take a 2-0 lead in the second inning of game three on Saturday afternoon. As a result, starting pitcher Christian Pedrol delivered one of the best throwing performances that has been seen in a Regensburg playoff game for a long time. The Brazilian served 15 strikeouts to the overwhelmed Paderborn batsmen in seven rounds. Pedrol only allowed one walk and four hits.
However, the Legionnaires’ attack failed to catch up. Especially in the sixth round, the hosts missed the great opportunity to pull away with loaded bases and zero outs. Consequently, the Untouchables sensed their opportunity and turned the game around against substitute Jan Tomek with three runs in the last two sections. With their backs to the wall, the Upper Palatinate took heart in game four. With another outstanding throwing performance from pitcher ace Kaleb Bowman in the back, the offensive ignited the turbo with four runs in the fifth inning. Six more points in the sixth round, in which David Grimes provided the highlight with a two-run home run, left no doubt about the winner of this game. Lukas Jahn finally ended the match prematurely with an RBI single.
offensive weakens
However, the attacking department of the legionnaires presented themselves as changed in the all-important fifth game. The hosts managed next to nothing against Paderborn’s Benjamin Thaqi. The five-time champion only had three hits on the scoreboard over the entire duration of the game. The U’s, meanwhile, went 2-0 up against Mitch Hillert in the opening inning and increased their lead over substitute Sven Schüller to six runs.
The Schwabelweiser ultimately found no remedy against the Paderborn homegrown Thaqi and have to wait for the first final since 2016.
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