There was great respect for the guests from the Czech Republic, and the game on Wednesday evening started evenly. The Prague team started with concentration and the first player landed a hit. But Heidenheim’s thrower Jared Mortensen showed an outstanding performance in conjunction with catcher Daniel Vavrusa, who has been playing for the Heideköpfe again since Wednesday. The Czech had no pity for his compatriots and grabbed the first runner with a well-aimed throw to second base. Mortensen then only gave up one walk, but threw a terrific ten strikeouts in six innings.
Ten strikeouts from Jared Mortensen
When he then handed over to Mike Bolsenbroek, the game was long over. Although the Heideköpfe initially had their problems with Prague’s Japanese pitcher Natsuki Tamba, they put their first points on the scoreboard in the third inning. Here too, Vavrusa started with a hit, a double from Drew Janssen and another hit from Gary Owens made it 2-0.
After some problems at the start of the season, pitcher Jared Mortensen is getting closer to last year’s form. Kalle Linkert
Germaine Williams with a monster home run
The guests then changed pitchers surprisingly quickly, but Vasko Kolev had to swallow four hits in a row. Then Emmanuel Herrera was allowed to play, but things didn’t fare much better. William Germaine had opened the run with a hit, and when the Canadian was allowed to bat for the second time in the inning when the score was 7-0, he hit the ball high and well over the leftfield fence. With two men on base, this brought three more points. Not even the rain bothered us on this Friday evening in the Hellensteinenergie Ballpark. The Heidekopfs played the game with concentration, the fans saw not only strong pitching and 13 hits but also good defensive actions – especially from Drew Janssen at second base and shortstop Simon Liedtke.
Coach praises team performance
So after six and a half innings the early victory was certain and Klaus Eckle was completely satisfied. “We are simply a play-off team that can go one step further in games like this,” says the Heidenheim coach, who was very impressed with the performance of the Mortensen-Vavrusa combination, but above all praised the unified team performance. “We played strong defense, that is always the basis for such successes. It was also a very concentrated performance at bat,” said Eckle, praising his team, in which all players got their hits or free runs on base.
Were the Heidekopfs so good or were Prague weaker than expected? “They made a bit of the wrong decisions when it came to pitching, but the team was well positioned and is very dangerous at bat. “That’s why our performance can be rated highly,” says Eckle, who now wants to take the momentum with his team into the Bundesliga. In the other Champions Cup game, the Regensburg Legionnaires lost 0-2 at Draci Brno. This shows how strong the Czech teams generally are, even if Prague didn’t put their feet on the ground this time.
This is how it continues in the Bundesliga
The game plan is once again a bit strange. While Heidenheim and Regensburg recently had to play the very strenuous four-game series in four days and the first Champions Cup game just four days later, they now have the day off over Pentecost. The Heideköpfe continue with two games against the Stuttgart Reds the following weekend. On Friday, May 24th, the HSBers will play in the state capital, and on Sunday, May 26th (1 p.m.) the teams will meet in the Heidenheimer Ballpark.
2024-05-16 14:14:19
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