Stuttgart’s race to catch up is not rewarded › 1. Baseball Bundesliga

In a long-distance duel with the Regensburg Legionnaires for the lead in the southern group, the Heidenheim Heideköpfe play against the Stuttgart Reds on Friday evening. At 9:7, the heathheads just kept the upper hand in the Baden-Württemberg duel. But in the end it got really exciting again.

First, Gary Owens put the visitors ahead with a solo home run in the top half of the first inning. The home side equalized in the bottom half of the same inning, only to take the lead a run later through a two-run homer from Xavier Artega. The heather heads were by no means shocked. In the fourth inning, it was William Germaine who knocked the ball out of the ballpark for three runs. As a result, the guests continuously increased their lead and after the top half of the eighth inning, at a score of 9:3, already looked like the sure winner.

But far from it. Heidenheim’s Konstantin Schiele, who took over for Sven Schüller on the throwing mound in the seventh inning, got into serious trouble in the eighth inning. After five hits in a row by the home side and three more runs on the scoreboard, Heidenheim’s coach Klaus Eckle pulled the rip cord and ended Schiele’s working day on the mound. Veteran Mike Bolsenbroek took over for him. The Dutchman started his difficult mission with runners on first and third base, with no outs. Shortly thereafter, Stuttgart’s Oscar Hundt shortened to two runs with an RBI single.

However, Mike Bolsenbroek kept his nerve afterwards. With two pop outs and a strikeout, Bolsenbroek finally came out of the inning undamaged. But the last inning was by no means smooth for the guests. First Moritz van Bergen succeeded with a single on base, before Fridolin Fink aggravated the situation for Bolsenbroek with a double. But he showed his nerves again and sent the next three batsmen back into the dugout with a strikeout and secured the save.

For the Reds there is a chance for revenge in game 2 on Saturday in Heidenheim.