The postseason in the German Baseball-Bundesliga started on Saturday with games one and two. The fans saw two splits and two sweeps as the quarterfinals got underway. Defending champion Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg won 8-1 and 5-0 against the HSV Stealers. Mike Bolsenbroek, Boris Bokaj, Justin Kuehn and Jonathan Eisenhuth kept the Hamburg offense in check. Chris Howard, Enzo Muschik and Ludwig Glaser led the offense with home runs.
North champion Solingen Alligators stumbled in Munich and had to settle for a split against the Haar Disciples. The Disciples won game one 7-6 thanks to six runs in the last two frames against closer Theon Bourdaniotis. Michael Stephan had the game-winner with a walk-off RBI double in the ninth. In game two Nick Renault got some payback after getting released by Haar prior to the playoffs last year. He issued just one hit and a walk in 7 2/3 innings to lead Solingen to an 8-0 shutout. The game got cut short due to rain in the eighth.
The Mainz Athletics and Bonn Capitals also split their first two games. Daniel Lamb-Hunt and Christian Nsien went deep in a 9-8 victory of the Capitals in game one. They nearly blew a 9-1 lead in the process, but former Mainz player Nils Hartkopf got the last two outs with runners on the corners. The A’s scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth. In game two Mainz won 7-1. Pat Haugen dominated with 17 strikeouts to win the pitcher’s duel against Charley Olson.
The Heidenheim Heidekoepfe defeated the Untouchables Paderborn 7-5 and 14-12 to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five series. James McOwen and Simon Guehring combined for seven hits in game one, which saw Paderborn unsuccessfully rallying in the ninth. Luke Sommer got the win, Harry Glynne the loss. Game two was spectacular with the Heidekoepfe blowing 7-0 and 12-5 leads. However they prevailed anyway thanks to runs in the eighth and ninth. Johannes Krumm and Martin Dewald closed out the win.