In the German Baseball-Bundesliga there will be a remake of the legendary 2007 final series. The Mainz Athletics will face the Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg from September 24. Nine years ago Mainz came back from a 0-2 deficit to beat Regensburg 3-2 for their first and lone national title in German Baseball.
This past weekend the semifinals ended and the Buchbinder Legionaere completed an impressive three-game sweep over northern champion Bonn Capitals. Regensburg, which had its problems during the regular season won games one and two 14-4 and 14-2 and then secured a finals berth with a 7-4 win. Chris Howard went deep in each of the three games. A five-run rally decided game three.
The semifinal series between Mainz and defending champion Heidenheim Heidekoepfe meanwhile was much more dramatic. Heidenheim took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series with an 8-0 shutout on Saturday. Johannes Krumm had stifled Mainz with a complete game, his first shutout in his career. However the Athletics offensive woke up on Sunday to come back. In game four Heidenheim was leading 5-4 in the eighth inning, when Mainz plated 11 runs en route to a 15-6 win. In the decisive fifth game the A’s erased an early 0-3 deficit and prevailed 13-6 in the end. Max Boldt and Thomas De Wolf each homered in both games on Sunday.
Photo by Gregor Eisenhuth, www.eisenhuth-photographie.de