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Ryan Bollinger is back at the Haar Disciples. © AF-PHOTO.de/Archive
Haar – The Haar Disciples have been waiting for this for years, so now the time has come: In the second game of the opening day of the new baseball Bundesliga season at the Mainz Athletics, Ryan Bollinger climbs the pitcher’s mound in the purple-yellow jersey. The American led the club to the semi-finals of the championship in 2017 with outstanding performances – the greatest success in the club’s history.
Since then, people in Haar have hoped that the pitcher would play for the Disciples again at some point. And this season the time has come.
The joy of the return of the 1.93 meter tall left-hander is soon clouded – by the course of the game. Not only did Bollinger and the Disciples fall behind 2-0 early on, but they also ended up with a sobering 6-0 defeat. Since the Disciples had already lost the first game the day before with 3:9, they went home from the opener in Mainz empty-handed. And with the realization, said new coach Charles Poe: “We didn’t play together as a team in both games. That was the main reason for the defeats.”
In fact, the Disciples were defeated early on in both duels. Starting pitcher Juan Salazar didn’t get into the game at all in the first game, whereupon his coach took him off the field in the first inning – when the score was 0:5. In the next round, Haar got back to 3:5 thanks to goals from Patrick Music and Lukas Steinlein. But because the guests’ defense continues to have a lot of problems with the Mainz batsmen from now on, the score is already 3:8 after three innings – and the Athletics effortlessly swing this lead into the finish.
The Haarers are rarely able to convince offensively in the first match: In addition to Patrick Music, who scored two goals, newcomers Phildrick Llewellyn, Steinlein and Simon Lechner also scored one hit each. The result was even meager the next day in the second game: just four hits in the entire game did not lead to a single run for the Disciples, who lost clearly 0-6 when Ryan Bollinger came back.
“We missed several opportunities offensively,” criticizes Charles Poe, who certainly had imagined his Bundesliga debut to be different. However, the US coach is convinced: “I saw in the preparation and especially in the training camp in the Czech Republic what the team is capable of. This time there was perhaps a bit of nervousness in the game.” The two defeats will now be analyzed calmly, announces Charles Poe. “And then we will show a different face in the next games.” (ps)
Mainz Athletics – Haar Disciples 9:3, 6:0
2024-04-09 14:42:55
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