The eventful days with the SAARLOUIS HORNETS of the German Baseball-Bundesliga continue. After releasing their best player on Monday, they cut ties with head coach Fred Beitler on Thursday. The clubs calls different philosophies about coaching and missing results as reasons for the release. They hope that Beitler stays in the organization to continue his work with the farm and junior teams. However a decision is not made yet at the moment. Mister-Baseball.com will have comments from Beitler in the coming days.
Assistant coach and part-time player Tom Gapp takes over as head coach until the end of the season. He will get help from Holger Engels. The HORNETS travel to second-ranked HEIDENHEIM this Saturday to make up for the rainout on opening day. SAARLOUIS is currently in fourth place with a 5-5 record.
Not aboard will their replacement for Sweeney. The club also announced today that they have reached an agreement with Salvatore Messina to come to Germany. The left-handed pitcher with some hitting abilities attended Mitchell College (Division III) in Connecticut and was named conference pitcher of the year last season. He is expected to arrive next Wednesday, right in time to play against the MAINZ ATHLETICS.
In 2007 Messina had a 4-1 record with an ERA of 3.97 (Opposing Batting Average .230) with 62 strikeouts (18 walks) in 45.1 innings pitched. He batted .402 (OBP .440/SLG .652) with five homeruns, eight doubles, 18 runs scored and 40 RBI in 24 games.