Germany – Great Britain 6-1
GBR 001 000 000 1 5 2 GER 011 031 00X 6 9 2
Germany celebrated its third win in as many games at the 2012 European Championship in Rotterdam, Haarlem and Utrecht. On Sunday evening they defeated Great Britain 6-1 behind a great pitching performance of Enorbel Marquez-Ramirez. The Cuban born southpaw allowed just an unearned run on five hits and a walk in eight innings, striking out seven. At the plate sac flies by Max Kepler and Ludwig Glaser put Germany up in front 3-1 in the third and the fifth. A two-run double by Simon Guehring blew the score open. Kai Gronauer went deep, starting his first time after arriving on Saturday afternoon. Great Britain only was able to score in the third on an error. Alex Smith was charged with the loss, issuing seven hits, five runs and three walks in 4 2/3 innings.
Bundestrainer Greg Frady…
…on the performance so far after three games.
„I am very happy. You know, the only thing you can do after three games is win three games. We try to take every game one day at a time. I know that’s Baseball talk, but it’s true if you just do that. Today we played great, I think it was our best game of the tournament so far.“
…about the good performance of the young guys like Lukas Jahn and Kevin Kotowski
„I believe in them. They come and play hard every day. They got great talent and they are great German baseball players. Their good performance is not surprising to me.“
…about putting Lukas Jahn at Shortstop where he didn’t play all year
„Lukas has been great“
…about the Dutch loss against the Czech Republic
„The Dutch loss today changes nothing. We still have to come play a good game. The Dutch have a good team, the may have lost a game today, but it changes nothing. The game will a competitive game between the German team and the Dutch team. And after the game is over tomorrow, we move on. It’s only one game on one day, that’s it.“
Quotes provided by Matthias Ondracek from Rotterdam
European Baseball has now got to be looking for finacial input to expand the game and attract spectators after missing out on the narrow minded decision to prevent baseball being played in the Olympics. Sponsorship where from major league baseball has got to take a more active interest in expanding the game world wide instead of being totally absorbed in itself and only looking outwards if someone hears of a a foreigner capable of playing in the major league. Development of any sport needs money and Major league baseball and the US have neglected this aspect of development for too long. I played with Joe Rowntree at Stretford Saints in the late 60’s and early 70’s for a few games. He was a son of the Rowntree confectionary empire. Just one example of where contacts may be available and willing to help.