The German Baseball Finals will begin this weekend. The Regensburg Legionäre face the Mainz Athletics in a best-of-five series.
The Legionäre eliminated Cologne Cardinals and Heidenheim Heideköpfe to reach the finals. Mainz clinched the berth with series wins against Bonn Capitals and 2006 national champion Solingen Alligators. The teams finished the regular season in first and second place in the southern conference. The Regensburg won all four regular season games, so they are the favourites.
Pitching: Both got great starting pitching performances throughout the postseason. Legionäre Aces Martin AMLSTETTER and Matthew FLAHERTY dominated their opponents at will. They both were on the mound for 54 of the 55 innings so far. Former Infielder Keigo MIYAGI is the designated Playoff-MVP for the A´s. Pitcher since the end of July, he is posting a 4-0 record in four games in August with a 0.93 ERA. Manuel MÖLLER, who was one of the best pitchers throughout the regular season, threw a no-hitter against Austria at the European championships last week. In his last game against Spain he showed some control problems.
Potential Match Ups:
Game 1: Martin ALMSTETTER (3-1, ERA 1.85) vs. Manuel MÖLLER (2-2, ERA 3.25)
Game 2: Matthew FLAHERTY (3-0, ERA 0.45) vs. Keigo MYIAGI (4-0, ERA 0.93)
Offense: The two teams have also been the top two offensive teams until now. Regensburg hit .372 with 54 Runs in seven games. Tyler JACOBSEN (.571, 1 HR, 10 RBI), Alexander LAUTERBACH (.478, 2 HR, 7 Runs, 10 RBI) and Ludwig GLASER (.500, 10 Runs) destroyed opposing pitching. Mainz, owning a .311 batting average, scored 65 Runs in eight games. Mike LARSON (.346, 7 Runs, 10 RBI) and Sascha LUTZ (.286, 1 HR, 8 Runs, 11 RBI) made the most of their atbats. Janusz RADICKE is hitting .438.
Prediction: Very difficult because of the long break between this series and the semis. The teams who has handled the break better will most likely win this one. If anybody is showing some rust, then the others will be victorious