On Saturday April 5th defending champion ROYAL GREYS squares off against the HOBOKEN PIONEERS and the other six clubs open the Belgian Baseball Season as well. The GREYS had won the 2007 championship in four games against the MORTSEL STARS. Due to a format change we are looking forward to an interesting season.
The Belgian Champions of this century:
2007 Royal Greys Merksem
2006 Royal Greys Merksem
2005 Royal Greys Merksem
2004 Brasschaat Braves
2003 Brasschaat Braves
2002 Brasschaat Braves
2001 Brasschaat Braves
2000 Mortsel Stars
A last look at the 2007 season:
Regular Season:
- Royals Greys 24-4
- K. Mortsel Stars 20-8
- Brasschaat Braves 18-10
- Pioneers Hoboken 16-12
- Namur Angels 10-18
- Borgerhout Squirrels 10-18
- Brussels Kangaroos 8-20
- Antwerp Eagles 6-22
Playoffs:
Semi-Finals (best-of-three):
Royal Greys – Pioneers Hoboken 2-0 (4-0, 8-0)
K. Mortsel Stars – Brasschaat Braves 2-1 (8-1, 7-9, 5-2)
Finals (best-of-five)
Royal Greys – K. Mortsel Stars 3-1 (3-2, 10-6, 2-6, 7-6)
Players to look for:
Top Position Players:
Steven De Lannoy (Pioneers)
Hans Heyrman (Braves)
Randy Giorgiadis (Stars)
Sim Ruts (Stars)
Geert Rosiers (Greys)
Top Pitchers:
Dennis Van Hoof (Greys)
TJ Antonacci (Pioneers)
Kenny Van den Branden (Pinoeers)
Brian Beutels (Stars)
Yannick Sel (Stars)
Ben Verhaevert was so kind to write a short preview for the upcoming weekend and the season:
The Belgian season will kick off on the weekend. That is if the weather stays OK and the fields are able to absorb the water they had to endure these last weeks.
In most of Belgian Baseball, the Federation has put into place a new structure for all of its divisions. In the first division, the 8 participating teams will play a double round robin stretching over 14 games. Thereafter the first 6 form a league of their own in order to determine the 2 teams who are to play the Belgian series in the beginning of October.
The latter 2 will take on the best 4 of division 2. The top 2 of this Promo 1 will stay in first division. This means there is no longer an automatic relegation nor an automatic access to first division for the champion of 2nd division.
The latter 3 of 2nd division will play the best 5 teams of the 3rd division in a round robin play and only the best four will end up in division 2 next year.
This structure came about after numerous talks with clubs and the Belgian Baseball Board.
We’ll hope it will work out fine. In any case it will give each team more games and better chances to improve.
The first weekend will schedule the top game HOBOKEN PIONEERS against ROYAL GREYS. After the switch of TJ Antonacci from the GREYS to the PIONEERS and with the unfortunate events surrounding the two American players for the GREYS, this game could already give a hint as to the rest of the season.
Newcomer MERCHTEM CATS will take on BRASSCHAAT BRAVES and will have to prove that the differences between second and first division is closing.
BRUSSELS faces the difficult task of taking on MORTSEL STARS, a team eager to show they got what it takes to become Belgian Champion.
The last game sets up BORGERHOUT SQUIRRELS against the NAMUR ANGELS, two teams who met each other last year in the relegation division but managed to stay alive. Both enter the season with the aspiration to be part of the Elite division at the end of the first round.
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