The German baseball champion Bonn Capitals has reached the first milestone on the way to defending the title. With the two victories at the end of the normal round at the Dohren Wild Farmers, the team of player-coach Wilson Lee secured the Northern Championship. “That was our goal,” said Capitals sports director Florian Nehring. “In view of the many injuries, this title is the result of a strong team effort.” In the quarter-finals of the playoffs, the Capitals meet the Haar Disciples from Munich. After the 8:7 success in the first game, the Capitals confidently prevailed in the second meeting with 8:0. The start of the quarter-finals will take place in Bonn next weekend. The games against Haar start at 5pm on Saturday and 1pm on Sunday.
The first game in Dohren started with a bang. The Capitals had runners on all bases in the first inning, and Phildrick Llewellyn then hit a spectacular Grand Slam home run to take a 4-0 lead. Despite the dream start, the guests were unable to break away further as the game progressed. Dohren countered with two runs in the second inning and reduced the lead to 2:4. At first it stayed that way.
Eight times North Champion in nine years
Both pitchers, Titus von Kapff on the Bonn side and Edvardas Matusevicius, had the action under control. But it should take revenge that the Capitals could not follow suit. And so the hosts equalized shortly before the end of the game to 4: 4 – so an extra inning had to bring the decision. Overtime has been played as a tiebreaker since this season. This means that runners are placed on first and second base respectively before the offense gets going.
After hits from Llewellyn, Daniel Sanchez and Terrell Joyce, four points lead to an initially reassuring 8:4 lead. But things got tight again after Fabian Aquino Jung had hit a three-run home run for Dohren to make it 7:8. The home side couldn’t do more. With this win, the Capitals wrapped up the northern championship in the Bundesliga for the eighth time in nine years.
In the second game, Bonn’s pitcher Toru Murata gave the hosts no chance. The Wild Farmers didn’t even get a hit or walk into the fifth inning. The Capitals, on the other hand, scored continuously. A home run by Terrell Joyce made it 1-0 again this time. After hits from youngster Jonathan Bolz, who got a chance in this game, and Eric Brenk, Luis Martin and Danny Lankhorst made it 3-0. In the third inning, the Bonn team also scored two points with Joyce and Daniel Lamb-Hunt. The game was decided. Nevertheless, the Capitals added three more runs in the fifth inning to make it 8-0. Jakob Schoch threw his first Bundesliga inning for the Capitals.
Bonn now meets the fourth in the south, the Haar Disciples, as the table first. Hamburg secured second place and plays against Regensburg, Paderborn has to play against Mainz. The quarter-finals will be played in best-of-five format. So three wins are necessary. Bonn initially has home rights.
2023-07-16 17:44:47
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