Dohren. Germany’s smallest Bundesliga club is starting the season with a lot of self-confidence – also because top international players are on board.
“This year the semi-finals are mandatory!” Bernd Sievers, the long-time head of the baseball department at SV Dohren, did not mean his statement completely seriously. Over the course of the traditional Season opening the Dohren Wild Farmers However, there was an increasing number of voices, including from the players, who even exceeded this ambitious goal. Whether it’s too high or not, one thing is obvious: lots of it self-consciousness the Dohren Wild Farmers start after Easter Saison 2024 the Baseball-Bundesliga.
They can do that too. Last year, the team from the Tostedt community in the Harburg district had it again Play-offs around the German championship reached. New: for the first time in the club’s history there were play-off victories, two in number. In a spectacular quarter-final series, the Wild Farmers brought the Heidenheim Heideköpfe to the brink of defeat and had to admit defeat 2-3 after a tough fight. Belated accolade: Heidenheim was later crowned German champion 2023.
Dohren Wild Farmers: Two talents play in the U12 national team
Further self-confidence comes from the success of the youth work. With Keylen Fernandez Ruiz, last year’s European champion with Germany and World Cup participant in Taiwan, and more recently Matthes Schwarcke, there are two U12 national players. In addition, Paul Hoff’s contract signing with the Milwaukee Brewers, a Major League Baseball (MLB) club in the USA, was celebrated in January.
The Dohren Wild Farmers are starting the 2024 season of the Baseball Bundesliga with this team. The club from the Harburg district is one of five clubs in the North Relay. © Andreas Hannig / Lobeca.de | Andreas Hannig
Fabian Aquino Jung recently did the same. The 18-year-old also wore the Wild Farmers jersey in 2023. He is now under contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates and, like Paul Hoff, is preparing for the new season in the Dominican Republic.
Three new import players from Venezuela: a catcher and two pitchers
Ultimately, people in Dohren have great hopes for the so-called “imports”: (imported) players of international caliber who have not made it into the US baseball leagues, but who are strong enough to perform in any other country in the world.
The three new faces in 2024 all have roots in Venezuela: they are catcher Carlos Parra and the two pitchers Ivan Andueza and Yefferson Ianuzzi. Because the latter also has an Italian passport, he is considered an EU citizen and can be used in both matches on a double game day without any restrictions.
Bitter loss: Edvardas Matusevicius ends his baseball career
Also new to the 2024 Bundesliga team are Orlando del Muro (back after a knee injury), Manuel Reyes (from Buxtehude) and Henry Guerrero. The Japanese Takuto Kanno ended up in Dohren by chance. The Wild Farmers will have to do without Wester Bocio (moved to southern Germany), Robert Dröge (to the Hamburg Stealers) and Edvardas Matusevicius (end of career).
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Matusevicius, who comes from Lithuania and lives in Bremen, was a top performer for the Wild Farmers for many years, was used at bat and as a thrower and received awards as the best man in the Bundesliga North relay in his position.
Pedro Fernandez Ruiz is entering his first full year as head coach
The Wild Farmers have been preparing for the season in the open air since the beginning of March. If the weather isn’t good, you can go to the “Batting Cage”, a covered and illuminated training area in the Kakenstorfer Weg Ballpark. Pedro Fernandez Ruiz is entering his first full year as head coach. “This time I was able to put the team together according to my ideas,” says the 46-year-old, who took over from Jan Hassenpflug in 2023 during the current season.
Pedro Fernandez Ruiz (left), known as “Patico”, is entering his first full year as head coach of the Dohren Wild Farmers. © HA | Markus Steinbrück
“We have a good team, a good atmosphere and strong imports,” says the man who is only called “Patico” in Dohren. When it comes to his goals for the season, he doesn’t go as far as some others do. “We’re trying to win every game, want to get into the play-offs and then see how far we get,” says Fernandez Ruiz.
Only five teams in the North Season of the Baseball Bundesliga
After the withdrawal of the Berlin Flamingos, the northern season of the Baseball Bundesliga consists of only five teams. The top four make it into the play-off quarter-finals against the South. “I see all the northern clubs at a similar level,” says the coach. “It will be extremely difficult because the others have also stepped up and there is no weaker team – as is usual on occasion.”
In the main round, 24 games await the Dohren Wild Farmers. A three-game round is played from the beginning of April to the end of July, with two games per opponent per match day. One half will be played as a doubleheader with two games on one day, the other half will be split at the request of the Bundesliga management.
Northern derby at the start of the season: Hamburg Stealers come on April 6th and 7th
Then there is the first match on Saturday and the second on Sunday. The 2024 Bundesliga season begins in this way against the Hamburg Stealers on Saturday and Sunday, April 6th and 7th, at 2 p.m. in Dohren.
Long-time department head Bernd Sievers introduced all of the Wild Farmers baseball teams in the SV Dohren clubhouse. © HA | Markus Steinbrück
All home games take place at Ballpark Kakenstorfer Weg 21 in 21255 Dohren. Admission remains unchanged at eight euros for doubleheaders and five euros for single games (reduced 5 and 3 euros respectively). Diverse catering is part of good form. Match day information and later the post season dates are available on Facebook, Instagram and on the Internet www.wildfarmers.de.
Wild Farmers: Dates and opponents for the remaining home games until July 2024
Other main round home games: Saturday, April 13th, 1 p.m., Cologne Cardinals (two games); Sunday, May 5th, 2 p.m., Hamburg Stealers; Saturday, June 1st, 1 p.m., Bonn Capitals (two games); Saturday, June 22nd, 1 p.m., Hamburg Stealers; Sunday, June 30, 1 p.m., Cologne Cardinals (two games); Saturday, July 20th, 2 p.m., Paderborn Untouchables; Sunday, July 21st, 12 p.m., Paderborn Untouchables
In Dohren: Baseball and softball from four-year-old children to parents over 40
From the age of four, children in Dohren are carefully introduced to baseball. Once they have outgrown the minis, the U12 and later the U15 team awaits. A total of 25 girls and boys train together on Wednesdays and Fridays. The Wild Farmers are the only club in Lower Saxony that could also field a U18 team.
However, due to a lack of opponents, the young people are integrated into the three men’s teams. In addition to the first and second men’s teams (1st and 2nd Bundesliga), there is an over-40 team (association league), which once emerged from the parents’ group. Dohren’s softball-playing women have always formed a playing community with Bremen.
2024-03-27 05:03:03
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