by A.P. Beauregard, www.namur-angels.be
Namur winning in walk-off fashion, an American pitcher throwing a complete game victory for Merchtem, and the Angels and Cats splitting a weekend series, sound familiar? What was Namur’s Remi Gillet homering to cement a 13-2 Angels win and Merchtem’s Reid Jackson striking out 12 in a 4-3 triumph on opening weekend in April became the Angels’ Cedric Nauts sending everyone home with a bases clearing double and the Cats’ Ethan Guevin going the distance to salvage a split on the last weekend in May, the 29th and 30th. Ironically, even the weather played its part in the parallel, as the teams battled cold, blustery, and rainy conditions throughout both games.
A sloppy game from the start, Saturday’s contest slogged its way through a rain delay to a 10-7 score heading into the last turn at bat for the home Angels. Leading off the bottom of the ninth inning for Namur was first baseman Thomas Vandenabeele whose prompt single set the stage for the forthcoming dramatics.
These last minute fireworks came six batters later from right fielder Cedric Nauts who, following a base hit by Ronny Heymans and walks by Adrien and Ludovic Geuquet, stepped to the plate with a scenario enacted in backyards and sandlots for as long as baseball has been around: bottom of the ninth, down two runs, two outs, bases loaded.
Wasting no time, Nauts scorched a line drive to left field which commenced the merry-go round of base runners and the celebration that followed in an 11-10 victory for Namur. 4-5 at the plate, Nauts also picked up the win pitching 2.1 innings of scoreless relief of Gracjan Kraszewski and Angels starter Shouta Ichinoseki.
Vandenabeele, Heymans, Theodore De Bellefroid, and Adrien Stokart all added two hits apiece to the Namur attack. For the Cats, Geert Cleymans’ 3-6 and Tim Vanlierde’s 2-4 led the way.
Sunday’s match, May 30th, was the story of a strong performance by Merchtem’s Ethan Guevin in a 10-5 Cats victory. Batting out of the #3 spot in the line-up Guevin turned in a 2-5 showing at the plate that was not to be outdone by his work on the mound: a complete game, 9 strike-out outing.
Geert Cleymans contributed 2 hits as did teammate Ruud DeWinde, while 8 Cat players in the line-up produced at least one base hit to aid the offense.
Namur was led at the plate by Nicolas Migeot whose 2-3 was further enhanced by 2 runs scored and a base on balls that saw him reach base safely 3 out of 4 plate appearances, while Ronny Heymans and Gracjan Kraszewski each recorded 2-4 afternoons. Ludovic Geuquet, Adrien Geuquet, and Matthieu Deltombe each had one base hit to their credit, the brothers Geuquet each registering their one hit for extra bases in the form of a pair of doubles.
The weekend’s results have brought Namur to (6-8) on the season as they remain fourth in the league standings looking ahead to next week’s games against the K. Mortsel Stars (4-10).
{mrb-result:2010-05-29|2010-05-30|BE}
{mrb-standing:belgium-2010}