Mister Baseball

by Thommy Brolin

The 2010 Swedish Elitserien started Saturday with a re-match of last year’s finals between Stockholm and Tranas, and with Göteborg upsetting Leksand in both games of their doubleheader.

Last year’s Champions Stockholm played hosts to runners-up Tranas at the Skarpnäck field in south Stockholm. The reigning Champions showed no mercy with the guests in the first game, which ended with a 15–4 Stockholm win in seven innings. But for the second game of the doubleheader Tranas found their winning ways from last year when they blanked the Champions 10–0, this game also going just seven innings.

Both of these teams are among the favorites fort his years Championship, although both teams have suffered one very significant loss in the line-up over the winter. Stockholm has lost last year’s MVP Peter Johannessen to De Angelis Godo in Italy, and Tranas have lost last the most dominating pitcher from 2009 Eimantas Zickus to rivals Karlskoga.

The west-most team in Sweden, Göteborg, surprised most of baseball-Sweden except themselves, when they won both games against last years semifinalist Leksand in Gothenburg. After Leksand went 3–0 up in the top of the third inning, Göteborg got going and scored four runs in the bottom of the frame, added another six in the forth, three more in the fifth, and after two insurance runs in the sixth the game was over after seven innings and a 15–3 Göteborg win.

Curtis Dionne went the distance for Göteborg and gave up only five hits and a BB in the process. Leadoff Joey Schwartz went 3 for 3, Bryan Lee 3 for 4 and Erik Earnest 2 for 3 to lead a Göteborg offense the compiled 17 hits over seven innings.

In the second game Leksand started strong and were 8–1 after the top of the second inning. After the third Leksand still held the lead 10–5, but with four runs in both the forth and the sixth inning Göteborg had turned it around and lead 13–10. Leksand managed to tie the game after the top of the eighth inning, but Göteborg came back with a single run in the bottom of the inning and held on to a 14–13 win.

Ryan Brown went 3 for 4 with six RBI, and Joey Schwartz continued his strong batting form the first game and went 3 for 5 in this the second game where Göteborg compiled nine hits. Leksand had ten hits with Nicklas Melin (2 for 3), Daniel Farth (2 for 5) and Richard Leander (2 for 6) provided the offense for Leksand.

Karlskoga played hosts to Sundbyberg when Eimantas Zickus made his debut fort he Bats. Sundbyberg greeted him with hot bats, and scored three runs in the first inning. But after that Eimantas settled down as Karlskoga answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning, and went on the win the contest 9–4. Karlskoga’s Christoffer Johansson with 4 for 5, and Sundbyberg’s Demond Wiltshire with 3 for 5 lead their teams in offense.

The second game was dominated by strong pitching from Sundbyberg’s Nick Soubiea, and homeruns from Shawn Vance and Philip Gajzler as Sundbyberg cruised to a 9 – 4 after the top of the eighth inning. But as everyone had booked a win for Sundbyberg Karlskoga started to hit the ball hard. They tied the game with five runs in the bottom of the eighth, and after they had held Sundbyberg scoreless in the top of the ninth, the got the winning run across when a base hit from Elias Sölveling scored Eimantas Zickus with two outs in the bottom of the last inning, and the final score was 10–9 for Karlskoga.

Sundbybergs Shawn Vance and Philip Gajzler both had very long homeruns over the centerfield wall in this game. Jason Enewold homered for Karlskoga in the first game.

Newly promoted Eskilstuna Hammers played Gefle in their first two games at top level in Sweden. In the first game Gefle used 16 hits to outscore the Hammers 15–5 after eight innings. Michael Boström went the distance for Gefle giving up seven hits and five BB while striking out four. Erek Mullin, Dane Youtz, Tomas Jansson and Peter Jansson all went 3 for 5 for Gefle. For Eskilstuna their seven hits were distributed over seven different players.

If the first game was very lopsided, the second was a lot closer and was decided in the last inning. Eskilstuna scored a run in the first inning, and Gefle equalized in the third. The score remained tied 1–1 till the eighth inning, where Gefle’s Dane Youtz was hit-by-pitch to start the inning, then stole second and score the go-ahead run from second when Hammers second baseman couldn’t handle a grounder from Tomas Jansson, who had entered the game as catcher in the sixth inning.

In the top of the ninth Gefle added three insurance runs on a hit batsman, two infield errors and a triple from Dane Youtz.

Eskilstuna mounted a comeback in the bottom of the ninth when Magnus Bidebo and Tomas Häggblom started the inning with back-to-back singles. An infield error and a wild pitch gave Eskilstuna two runs, but Gefle pitcher Peter Jansson got Christian Bidebo to ground out to first base with runners on second and third and give Gefle a 5–3 victory.

This game was dominated by very good pitching from all four pitchers (Joel Hedlund and Peter Jansson for Gefle, Magnus Bidebo and Tomas Häggblom for Eskilstuna) and sloppy defense, as four errors from Gefle and five from Eskilstuna meant that all eight runs scored in the game was unearned.

Box scores available on Heatstat.se

	Time	Home	Visitor	Result
Saturday, May 01 2010
	13:00	Stockholm	Tranås	15:04
	13:00	Karlskoga Bats	Sundbyberg Heat	09:04
	13:00	Göteborg	Leksand	15:03
	13:00	Eskilstuna Hammers	Gefle	05:15
	16:00	Stockholm	Tranås	00:10
	16:00	Karlskoga Bats	Sundbyberg Heat	10:09
	16:00	Göteborg	Leksand	14:13
	16:00	Eskilstuna Hammers	Gefle	03:05

Standings

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