On Saturday
and Sunday, May 18 and 19, the men’s baseball national teams of Germany and
France face off in an exhibition series. Despite rainy conditions the hosts of
the Saarlouis Hornets did a phenomenal job to prepare the field for the games.
Germany prevailed in both ends to the two-game set.
In game one on Saturday Germany scored two runs apiece in the third and fourth en route to a 4-2 win over France. France only managed to score twice in the eighth, but was not successful in a late-game comeback attempt. Eric Brenk, Kenny Fermin, Finn Bergmann and Kevin van Meensel scored for Germany. Kylian Bamberger and Liam Navarro crossed the plate for France. Markus Solbach, Marcel Giraud, Sven Schüller and Joe Cedano De Leon took the mound for Germany. Gedeon Coste, Nathan Laot and Franklin De La Rosa were the pitchers for France.
In game two on Sunday Germany got on the board on a solo home run by Danny Lankhorst in the second. They added three more runs in the fourth and blew the score wide open with four runs in the sixth. After France broke the shutout attempt with a solo home run by Felix Brown in the seventh, the game got called due to rain after two batters in the eighth inning. Niklas Rimmel and Mark Harrison pitched for Germany. Mathis Nayral, Clement Esteban and Emille Brelk were the hurlers for the French squad.
Both games
at the ballpark in Saarlouis were attended. The two teams also were invited by
the mayor of the city to sign into the golden book of the city. Managers of Germany
and France used the exhibition series to work with their teams in a year which isn’t
featuring European championships in the men’s and U23 categories.
Photo by Felix Nowakowski
