PrintShare
Ready for the 2nd Bundesliga (back, from left): Stefan Singvogel, Andreas Mann, Julian Kupfer, co-coach Markus Singvogel, Marcus Haßmann, Marc Weinsteiger, coach Ralph Weinsteiger and (front, from left) Finley Hirschfeld, Till Friedrich, Viktor Handy , Jan Willms and Tobias Mann as well as (not in the picture) Lennart Greska, Fabian Koch, Jeremy Lindström, Raphael Walchshäusl and Cristian Zapata Giraldo. © Sabina Brosch
With the promotion, the baseball players fulfilled a dream. Now it’s time to set specific goals for the Red Lions from Schwaig: play good games and assert themselves in the 2nd Bundesliga.
Schwaig – Coach Ralph Weinsteiger is relying on the strength of the team, which has come together better and better over the past year. The season opener is on April 6th on the home field in Schwaig against the Baseball Academy. This will be a challenge, because the Academy players are all players from the Regensburg baseball boarding school, from which the German youth baseball elite are recruited. The Red Lions have 16 double game days, i.e. two games in one day, ahead of them this season. There is a home and away game against each opponent and a subsequent interleague round.
In the south-east group, the lions meet the Heideköpfe Heidenheim 2, the Regensburg Legionäre 2, the Elchs from Ellwangen and the Grizzlies, their neighbors from Freising. In the South-West group, the Baldham Boars, Füssen Royals, Gauting Indians, Garching Atomics, Munich Caribes and Munich-Haar Disciples 2 face each other. The first two teams in the two groups will play for the championship in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals in a knockout system from mid-August.
“Our group division is challenging,” says department head Reiner Singvogel. “We not only have long journeys ahead of us. With Heidenheim we also have the second team from the reigning German champions in the group.” Nevertheless: “We were incredibly proud of our promotion. After a fantastic season in the Bayernliga Group South with 14 wins and only two defeats.”
As a parent club, FC Schwaig is also proud of its Bundesliga team, which is unique in the Schwaig baseball club’s history and has been a long-held goal for which they have consistently trained and worked in recent years. Accordingly, the requirement is to first get used to the new league.
For Coach Weinsteiger and his team, that meant intensive indoor training over the winter with lots of drills, fitness and conditioning work, practicing tactical moves, but also a lot of mental work. On the field, Weinsteiger relies on the proven team. The only new signing is Cristian Zapata Giraldo, a 36-year-old Spaniard who moved to Erding and joined the Red Lions at the end of last year. As a pitcher, he supports Schwaiger Stefan Singvogel, Raphael Walchshäusl and Marc Weinsteiger and “is an absolute asset, not only because of his skills, but also because of his great team spirit,” said the coach. Similar to Lennart Greska, who already had experience in the 2nd Bundesliga from the Munich Caribes and Ingolstadt Schanzern and proved to be a stroke of luck as a newcomer in the previous season and fit seamlessly into the team.
2024-03-27 15:45:11
#Red #Lions #Schwaig #preparing #competition #2nd #Bundesliga
