Mister Baseball

by www.Namur-Angels.be

NAMUR was facing the undefeated PIONEERS this past weekend.

Saturday, under one of the first sunny days of the season, the 17 year old Louis Dellieu was starting on the mound for the ANGELS against Brett Diamond, the returning American hurler from the PIONEERS.

Diamond pitched nine innings, giving up two runs on eleven hits and a walk while recording eight strikeouts. On the other hand, NAMUR failed to avoid the big inning for the first time this season. In the third, a hit batsman, two walks and two errors helped HOBOKEN to plate five runs on only two hits. In the fifth, NAMUR allowed one more run before seeing the game going out of their reach with a four-run sixth inning.

NAMUR, though, kept on battling, scoring one run in the fifth and seventh innings, avoiding the mercy rule. Additional runs from the PIONEERS on ANGELS reliever Cédric Nauts in the eighth and ninth sealed the score to 2-12.

The Geuquet brothers both had three hits while Gressman and Migeot each had two.

Sunday however, it was a totally different story. Calarco was back on the mound after missing his turn the week before with elbow tightness. He was facing the best pitcher from 2007, TJ Antonacci.

Dennis Ribbens, who led off the bottom of the first with a walk, was brought in on a single by Brett Diamond to give the PIONEERS an early lead. In the top of the fourth though, Ludovic Geuquet and Philip Van Woensel both reached on errors. Cleanup hitter Juny Gressman then plated Geuquet on a hit to center while Van Woensel was thrown out at third on a perfect throw from center fielder DeLannoy. With two outs, the red hot Migeot crushed a double to left to bring Gressman home and give NAMUR his first lead of the day.

In the bottom frame of the inning though, De Quint belted a homerun over the left field fence to tie the game at 2. NAMUR however was playing better than his opponent on Sunday. Migeot was leading off the sixth inning with a single. Xavier Pierreux then reached on an error and Adrien Geuquet moved both runners over on a ground out. With two outs, Adrien Stokart lifted a pitch over the third baseman’s head, bringing in Migeot with the go-ahead run (2-3).

That run turned out to be huge as Migeot, who came in relief of Calarco in the sixth inning, blanked the PIONEERS to record his second win in division 1. A nice win before facing MERCHTEM and BRASSCHAAT to close the first round of the competition.

On Thursday May 1st NAMUR was hosting the SQUIRRELS for the make-up game of what should have been their home opener.

The young Adrien Stokart was facing his twenty year older counterpart, Roger De Saedeleer. Again, Stokart was doing a tremendous job, only giving up two hits and two walks through six innings. De Saedeleer was also on top of his game but allowed Namur to take a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning on a walk and a hit batter to Adrien Geuquet and Cédric Nauts, followed by two consecutive hits to right field by Calarco and Van Woensel.

In the sixth, NAMUR was striking again. With one out, Migeot reached on a single to center. Adrien Geuquet reached base on a drag bunt. After an infield fly by Nauts, Calarco got his third hit of the game to move Migeot 90 feet from the plate. The throw from the right fielder sailed into the backstop allowing the 6′6 outfielder to cross the plate easily.

In the top of the seventh inning though, De Saedeleer helped himself with a double to left. With two outs, the left-handed batter Dave Van den Bosch was taking advantage of the first mistake from Stokart to belt one over the short right field fence and get his team right back into the game (3-2). In the bottom part of the seventh, Van den Bosch was taking over for De Saedeleer while the veteran player was moved to centerfield.

In the eighth inning, Ludowicka reached base with one out on a single to center field. With two outs again, De Saedeleer punished the second mistake of Stokart by going deep, once again in right field (3-4).

The ANGELS were not giving up, bringing runners in scoring position in the eighth and ninth innings but the SQUIRRELS held on to their lead to record their third win of the season.

	Time	Home	Visitor	Result
Thursday, May 01 2008
	15:30	Namur Angels	K. Borgerhout Squirrels	03:04
Saturday, May 03 2008
	15:30	The Merchtem Cats	Brussels Kangaroos	06:05
	15:30	Brasschaat Braves	Royal Greys	05:15
	15:30	Namur Angels	Hoboken Pioneers	02:12
	15:30	K. Borgerhout Squirrels	K. Mortsel Stars	01:19
Sunday, May 04 2008
	15:30	Royal Greys	Brasschaat Braves	12:01
	15:30	Hoboken Pioneers	Namur Angels	02:03
	15:30	Brussels Kangaroos	The Merchtem Cats	08:07
	15:30	K. Mortsel Stars	K. Borgerhout Squirrels	14:06

Standings