the Rouen Huskies start the big European Cup, with ambitions

It’s the equivalent of the Champions League in football, but in baseball. The Champions Cup, which brings together the best European teams, begins today, Tuesday June 6, in the Netherlands. The Huskies of Rouen, 17 times champions of France, face the Dutch of Bussum, to start, this Tuesday. The Germans from Bonn will follow on Wednesday, then the Czechs from Ostrava on Thursday.

The first phase includes 2 groups of 4 teams. Each team competes three matches in three days. The top two qualify for the semi-finals.

For the Huskies, it will be a return to this competition, after un an d’absence. Their last participation, in 2021, had come to an end: 5 matches, 5 defeats. Nothing to worry about Pierre-Yves Rolland, the president of the club: “We were coming out of Covid, we hadn’t managed to bring our internationals back, one of our best players was getting married at that time, it’s an edition to forget, which doesn’t really count.”

For this 2023 edition, the club has therefore a little more ambition : “If we reach the semi-finals, or even the podium, it will be a very good performance”, explains the president. The Huskies, despite their success on the national scene, have never won this Champions Cup. She missing from the charts of the Rouen club, which has already triumphed in Europe, but in the “small” Cup.

The Huskies come into this competition as they are second in their pool of the French championship, behind Toulouse. The record of nine wins and five losses is not bad, but it is mixed. The fault according to Pierre-Yves Rolland has “a recruitment error among our internationals” and at *”the Esteban Prioul’s injury, absent for this competition”***. “**With him we would have a few more victories, there is nothing to worry about.” Serenity displayed therefore, at the time of approaching the European games.

First phase of the Champions Cup: Bussum – Rouen, Tuesday June 6 at 7 p.m. / Bonn – Rouen, Wednesday June 7 at 3 p.m. / Rouen – Ostrava on Thursday June 8 at 3 p.m.