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The Rouen Huskies have won the CEB Cup 2016 in Rouen and Cartres, France. The reigning French champion defeated the Barracudas Montpellier 5-2 in the championship game at a crowed Huskies ballpark on Sunday afternoon. With the win the French Federation secures a spot in next year’s European Champions Cup.
Rouen took the 1-0 lead in the third, when Maxime Lefevre came through with a RBI single. In the fourth Bastien Dagneau doubled home two more runs and later scored on an error to make it 4-0. Meanwhile French pitching prospect Yoann Vaugelade was dealing on the mound.
However he was struggling with two outs in the top of the seventh. A pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases. Following a coaches visit, where Keino Perez led Vaugelade in the game, Eric Herman came through with a ground ball towards right field. It was a sure hit, but Gregory Cros touched the ball when he ran towards second, ending a potential comeback.
The Huskies answered with a fifth run through Luc Piquet’s RBI single in the bottom of the seventh. Montpellier didn’t give up though. Will Musson and Laurent Andrades scored in the eighth and the ninth to bring the Barracudas on the board. In the ninth they once again loaded the bases – this time with no outs. Anthony Piquet came in and pitched around a RBI single of Simon Vandry to escape the threat.
Earlier in the day the Vienna Wanderers lost to Minsk 2-7 (box score) in Rouen, which means that the Austrian Federation has lost a spot in the CEB Cup for 2017. In Chartres Olimpija Karlovac beat Nada SSM Split 5-3 (box score) behind a strong pitching performance of Antonio Kovacic, finishing third ahead of Split.
Final Standings:
1) Rouen Huskies
2) Montpellier Barracudas
3) Olimpija Karlovac
4) Nada SSM Split
5) Zurich Barracudas
5) KNTU Elizavetgrad
7) Minsk
8) Vienna Wanderers
Individual Awards:
Best Batter: Clement Lepichon (Montpellier)
Best Pitcher: Owen Ozanich (Rouen)
MVP: Larry Infante (Rouen)
All box scores and statistics are available through www.baseballstats.eu