Zülpich’s Eagles Soar with Early Wins in NRW League Debut

A new league is like a new life. For the Zülpichs Eagles, after two promotions in a row, this new life is now called the NRW League. After all, the third highest league in Germany. In a seven-player relay, the opponents come from Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Cologne, Ratingen, Verl and Dortmund. And those Dortmunders, who call themselves the Wanderers, competed with their second team on match days three and four at the Naby Field in Niederelvenich, the home ground of the Zülpicher Eagles.

“In order to enable greater comparability between the teams, we play against each other four times, and so that the away trips are limited, we always play against each other twice on one day,” explains Markus Leszczynski from the Eagles. After the two defeats at the Senators Düsseldorf at the start of the season a week earlier, the hosts wanted to record their first wins in the new league.

Early end of game one: Zülpich’s lead was too big

They did this – and both times early. Game one went to the home team 19:5 according to the ten-run rule (ten points ahead after five innings played, i.e. runs). The second game also ended prematurely after five innings at 11:5. But this time because of the persistent heavy rain and the resulting unplayability of the pitch. The rain delay rule leads to the early termination of the game and scoring for the leading team.

Both teams had a difficult time getting started in the first game. But then the third inning followed, in which the Eagles made the preliminary decision with eleven runs. “We had a lot of good hits and laid the foundation for our first win with a home run from Juan Miguel Cabrera,” said new coach Jens Weiler, who led his team calmly and matter-of-factly through the game.

Dortmund led until the fourth inning in game two thanks to the strong pitcher

From his point of view, the second game was a “real thriller” because Dortmund’s pitcher “dominated us”. The visitors led 5-3 until the fourth inning, but then the Eagles turned things around. They hit better at bat and used their aggressive baserunning to turn the game around and ultimately benefit from the early break.

“Our defense was really good and we made few mistakes,” said Jens Weiler, summing up both games. On offense, his team showed the reaction they had hoped for last weekend and put in a good performance across the board. “We can build on that in the next games in three weeks, but for now we are looking forward to the big Eifel Cup at Pentecost,” said a satisfied Jens Weiler after the first two victories in the new league.

2024-05-08 15:12:18
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