The Namur Angels and Brasschaat Braves split their final series of the season with each other to finish the season series even at three wins each. In the Saturday game at Namur the Angels plated eleven runs and rode a final outstanding pitching performance from Caleb Calarco to victory. On Sunday in Brasschaat the outcome was in doubt for the entire game before Brasschaat eventually held onto a 6-4 victory.
The Angels managed to plate runs with ease all day on Saturday, although one would have sufficed. Calarco, who will be returning to the United States this week to assume a job as a school teacher, kept the Braves off the bases as he only allowed three hits and two walks while striking out seven.
Offensively, Calarco kick-started things on that side as well. With one out in the first inning he bashed a triple to right-center field and Morgan Brown followed by knocking an RBI single to right. In the second inning Ronny Heymans led off with a bunt single and Ludovic Geuquet moved him up with a sacrifice bunt. Nicolas Migeot then followed by depositing his first home run of the year just inside the foul pole down the right field line for a 3-0 lead.
The third inning really put Namur comfortably out in front. Calarco led things off again with a single. This time it was Brown driving an RBI triple to deep center field. After a walk, a fielder’s choice grounder to short by Florian Lekeu plated Brown. Heymans singled again and Geuquet delivered Lekeu with a double. Migeot singled in both runners to finish with four RBIs on the day. Adrien Stockart doubled and Philip Van Woensel hit a sacrifice fly to left to bring in Migeot before the inning finally ended after the Angels tacked on six.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth that Namur scored again however. Brown got things going with one out by singling to left field. Juny Gressman singled as well and Lekeu reached on an error. Heymans collected his third single and two RBIs to cap the scoring.
Brown and Heymans each had three of Namur’s 14 hits. Calarco, Geuquet, and Migeot all had two each.
On Sunday despite getting off to a good start, Namur could not keep up the pace and the Braves came from behind to win. In the first inning Van Woensel led off with a single but was then caught stealing. Calarco followed with a single as well and Brown walked. Gressman hit an inning-ending double-play ball to short that was thrown away and Calarco came into score while Brown scooted around to third. After a strikeout, Gressman was picked off of first base but managed to get into a rundown that allowed Brown to scramble in from third. Brasschaat got on the board as well in the first without a hit as four walks pushed a free run home.
Namur struck again in the second as Heymans led off with a walk and was pushed around to third on bunts by Cedric Nauts and Adrien Geuquet before scoring on an error. The Braves immediately pulled level however as three hits plated two runs. They kept going in the third with a walk and a pair of hits bringing home two. In the fourth the Braves got their sixth and final run following a double and a Namur error. Adrien Stockart cruised over the last four frames yielding just a single hit, but the damage had been done.
Chris Geschwendler kept Namur down with an assortment of breaking balls though the Angels would make things interesting. In the sixth inning Heymans reached on a two base error on a missed catch by the left fielder and then covered the remaining two bases courtesy of wild pitches.
Then in the eighth the Angels had a golden opportunity to draw level. Nauts had a one out hit and Geuquet reached on an error. Stockart sacrificed them over and Van Woensel walked to fill the unoccupied base. Calarco, already riding a two-hit game came to the plate in his final Angels at-bat, but unfortunately grounded out to end the frame.
{mrb-result:2008-08-02|2008-08-03|BE}
{mrb-standing:belgium-2nd-2008}