by Petter Lundberg
The Karlskoga Bats won both of their games during Saturday’s preseason round robin tournament in the indoor arena in Fredriksstad, Norway. Game one was played against the home team Bekkestua. Karlskoga won comfortably 11-2 after solid pitching from Kent KARLSSON (3 IP) and Erik ESKILSSON (2 IP). Christoffer JOHANSSON and Stefan FAHLIN paced the offense as they each hit a homerun.
The opponent in game two was the defending Norwegian champion Oslo Pretenders. Sami SAEKKINEN started for Karlskoga and faced Pretenders’ American Glenn Wells. SAEKKINEN pitched four no-hit shutout innings despite giving up six walks, but also notched six strikeouts. The Bats offense started strong out of the gate, as Elias SOELVELING and Petter LUNDBERG hit singles before Christoffer JOHANSSON hit a three-run homerun to give Karlskoga the early lead. Elias SOELVELING came on in relief and pitched the last two innings for Karlskoga. With SOELVELING on the mound the infield defense of Karlskoga weakened and helped the Pretenders score five unearned runs over the final two frames to cut the deficit to 8-5. But Karlskoga held on for an easy win.
Considering it is early in the pr-season and that these were the first two games, the Bats played solid. Good hitting from the top of the line-up (SOELVELING, LUNDBERG, JOHANSSON, FAHLIN) and solid pitching all around helped. The team defense was ok but can improve in the future as well as the Baserunning.