On Saturday the Angels hosted the Brasschaat Braves. With all hopes of the Belgian Series disappearing, The Angels desperately needed a win to stay alive. The game would be a pitcher’s duel between the Angels Nicolas Migeot and Braves starter, Clayton Cooper.
In the second inning the Braves would draw first blood after three straight singles and a throwing error. Migeot limited the damage to only the one run. They pushed another run across in the fifth inning after a leadoff walk and a three base throwing error on Randy Georgiadis’ bunt attempt.
The Angels responded in the bottom of the frame when Jerome Sana was forced in on a walk. The run evened the score 1-1. In the bottom of the sixth inning the Angels would put another run on the board, thanks to a leadoff homerun by Brian Hurld. This would be all the offense the Angels would get as Clayton Cooper kept their bats at bay for the rest of the contest. The Braves would take the lead in the seventh inning on a single by Erwin Maes. The run would prove to be the game winner.
Cooper finished his complete game five hitter without the Angels mounting much of a threat. The final score, 3-2. The loss eliminated the Angels from contention for the Belgian series as it is now a three team race.
The Angels continued their slide on Sunday against the Braves.
Brasschaat got on the board first in the bottom frame of the 2nd inning thanks to a solo shot from right fielder Chris Ruggenberg. In the 3rd inning, n° 9 hitter Thomas Van den Eynde started things off with a double to left field. A mishandled bunt advanced him to third before scoring on a sacrifice fly from shortstop Randy Giorgiadis.
In the top of the 4th inning though, Namur was getting back on track. Consecutive walks to Brian Hurld and Jérôme Sana, followed by a bunt single by Ludovic Geuquet loaded the bases with no out.
Young starter Tacco Van den Heuvel balked to advance the runners and allow the Angels’ first run of the day. Rookie second baseman Florentin Goyens reached on an error by the first baseman scoring Jérôme Sana to tie the game at 2. Adrien Geuquet then got himself a bunt single to score his brother Ludovic and give Namur a 2-3 lead.
That was the end of the day for Braves’ starter as he was relieved by lefty Yannick Sel. Sel didn’t waste time retiring the next 3 hitters to keep his team into the game. In the bottom of the 4th, DH Erwin Maes led off the inning with a single to left. With 2 outs, things got ugly as the Angels defense make back to back errors to allow Maes to tie the game 3-3. After a quiet 5th inning, things got worse for Namur as the Braves scored 3 runs on 1 hit, 1 walk and 3 errors 3-6.
Angels starter Brian Hurld was lifted in the 7th and 16 year old Edouard Van Heer was getting his first appearance for the Angels on the mound. Things started well for the strong 1.90m righty as the retired n° 4 hitter on a pop fly and n°5 Erwin Maes recording his 1st division 1 strike out. He loaded the bases on a walk, a hit batsman and an infield single before getting another strike-out to end the inning.
Things didn’t go as smoothly for the young hurler in the 8th inning as he allowed 3 consecutive singles before Hans Heyrman smoked an outside pitch over the right-centerfield fence. SS Todd Emr came in to pitch and took care of business by retiring the next 3 batters on a pop fly and a timely double play.
In the 9th, another top Angels’ prospect, Thomas Vandenabeele walked to start things off and scored on a long 2-out single by veteran catcher Ronny Heymans before Emr lined out to end the game on score of 10-4.
Brian Hurld took the loss, allowing 5 hits, 1 walk, 2 strike-outs for 2 earned runs in 6 innings. Yannick Sel was awarded the win with 3 hits, 1 walk, 5 strike-outs for 1 earned run in 6 innings.
Namur will face the leader, Pioneers next week, hoping to close the book on 2009 on a good note.