Diegomar Markwell, Takahiro Matsuba Starting Pitchers on Wednesday #EURvsJPN

Following an exciting first Global Baseball Match between Team Europe and Samurai Japan on Tuesday, both teams will take the field for the second portion of the two-game series on Wednesday. Once again Eurosport 2 will be broadcasting live starting at 10am CET.

Starting pitchers will be Diegomar Markwell and Takahiro Matsuba. Markwell is a left-handed pitcher of Curacao Neptunus Rotterdam. He has been a longtime member of the Dutch national team and a solid choice as starter. Last season he had an 8-1 record with an ERA of 1.97 in the Hoofdklasse.

Europe used five pitchers in game one and therefore can rely on a deep bullpen for the second match. From the Netherlands Mike Bolsenbroek, Orlando Yntema, Kevin Heijstek and Tom Stuifbergen are available, Leslie Nacar from Spain, Germany’s Luke Sommer and Jan-Niclas Stöcklin, as well as Owen Ozanich from France. All of them would be a deserving option. Ten position players got into the game on Tuesday with Blake Ochoa (Spain), Michael Duursma (Netherlands), Jakub Sladek (Czech Republic) and Mario Chiarini (Italy) hoping for an at-bat or two tomorrow.

Japan counters with Matsuba, a 24-year-old southpaw of the ORIX Buffaloes and therefore a teammate of Alessandro Maestri. He also went 8-1 with an ERA of 2.77 in the Pacific League last year. It was his second season in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Photo by Samurai Japan