CARDINALS DUE THE IMPROBABLE…WIN THE EURO QUALIFIER IN BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC!
by John Baum
Thanks to an all around effort, the Bern Cardinals were victorious in a very strong Euro Qualifier in Brno. The team ended the tournament leading in almost every offensive and pitching statistic. The incredible run allowed the Cards to finish the tournament a perfect 6-0, ending with a clear 14-2 win over Slovenia in the final!
Thursday against Slovenia proved to be the key game of the week for the Cardinals. After a shaky first inning, (two runs), the Cards settled into the game. In the bottom half on inning number one, Raphael Hanzi evened the score for the home team, lacing a two out, two run single to center. John Baum would find his groove on the mound after giving up two hits in the first, he surrendered only five more the rest of the game. The Cards, facing a strong left handed American, would battle all game, eventually scoring eight times, while knocking out nine hits on the day! The Bern team was led by Angelo Rodriguez, 2-4; Hanzi, 1-3, 2 RBI, and Baum, 1-3, 3 Runs. Baum ended with a complete game win, nine strikeouts and only two earned runs in the team’s 8-4 victory! This win insured the team a place in the final with a game advantage, no matter what happened on Friday!
In a game with no implications on Friday, the Cards still showed up to play, downing the Croatians by a score of 10-6! Chris Beyeler took the hill and again didn’t disappoint, going four innings for his team, allowing only one earned run. Tobias Imboden took over for the final five innings, himself allowing only one earned run! The story of the day was the Cards defense…committing a tournament high six errors! The team made up for it on the offensive side of the ball, and of course on the mound. The Cardinals banged out twelve hits on the day, three coming off the bat of Ronnie Zimmermann, who broke out of a week long slump. The Cards kept it together, despite all the extra outs to walk away with a 10-6 win, keeping the record clean of losses for the prelim round! After such a meaningful win the day before, it was only natural for the team to come out a bit flat, just like against Austria on Wednesday, we stayed together to play well enough to walk away with wins!
In the first game of the finals Saturday against Slovenia, a rested Severin Fries took the hill hoping to duplicate his 15 strikeout performance Tuesday against the Czechs…he didn’t reach fifteen K’s, but ten strikeouts and a four hitter was more than enough! The Cards once again fell behind early, giving up two runs in the first inning! Unfortunately this time, the team wasn’t able to respond in their half. The score remained 2-0 until the top of the third…Samuel Paulino reached base on a walk, and after getting the first out of the inning, the Slovenians ran into trouble. John Baum sent the first pitch he saw over the leftfield fence for the tournaments only homerun! This evened the score at two, with one out. The Cards eventually loaded the bases for Tobias Imboden. The Cards were in the same situation the previous inning, with no outs, and were unable to score…this time Imboden came through for his team, sending a 1-2-fastball to left for a run scoring single. On the play, the runner on second was thrown out at home, looking to stop the Cards momentum. This would not be the case, as the Cards went on the score five more times, ending the inning putting nine runs on the board, and heading back to the field with a 9-2 advantage! This ended up to be much more than Fries would need, allowing no more runs on the day, securing Switzerland first ever Qualifier win! The offense would only score in two innings all day, but both innings accounted for 14 runs, plating five more in the seventh inning, securing the win by mercy rule!
The Cards received two of the three individual awards the tournament handed out…Samuel Paulino walked away with best hitter, while John Baum garnered MVP honors. Severin Fries threw two beautiful games, and the rest of the pitching staff contributed to a tourney low ERA! The offense also came to play, hitting well over .300 for the week, leading in doubles, triples, RBI, and runs scored!
Thanks to everyone once again who kept up with what was happening for the week. I can’t say enough how much your support from back home was appreciated! History for Swiss baseball was made last week! I also cannot state enough that no rules were broken in achieving our success. We are the rightful champions! It was a wonderful week of baseball, and we are proud to have been able to bring back the first Qualifier win to Switzerland!