The German Baseball-Bundesliga play-downs ended last weekend with the Dortmund Wanderers completing a comeback against the Berlin Sluggers on the backs of Dennis Stechmann and Rene Herlitzius. Berlin dominated the first two games at home 3-1 and 15-1. It was not enough. Dortmund erased the 0-2 deficit on Saturday with 13-0 and 5-1 victories. On Sunday they won the decisive fifth match 8-5 with Stechmann breaking a 5-5 tie in the sixth with a two-run double.
With the 3-2 win in the play-downs’ second round Dortmund clinched seventh place in the north. Berlin had to settle for eighth now are in danger of relegation if there are willing second-division clubs to move up. In the south the Tubingen Hawks had secured seventh place with a 3-0 sweep in the play-downs against the Bad Homburg Hornets. Following a 7-6 win on the first weekend, they also won the completion of a suspended game (12-10) before closing out the 3-0 series win with a 8-7 victory.
The Cologne Cardinals, Dohren Wild Farmers, Stuttgart Reds and Mannheim Tornados had won in the first round of the play-downs. Cologne originally had lost to Dortmund. But due to an ineligible player usage by the Wanderers a Dortmund victory in game five of their series was ruled a 0-9 loss, which helped the Cardinals to clinched sixth place in the final standings of the northern division.