by Jeff Stoeckel, Paris UC
With the only two games played in the French Elite League on Sunday, Paris UC fell twice in two close games against the Templiers from Senart. The final scores of the games were 6-5 and 5-3.
In the first game, the story was strong pitching performances from both teams, with M. BRELLE (9.0 innings, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk and 11 strikeouts) picking up the win for Senart and M. MONBEIG (8.0 innings, 4 hits, 1 earned run, 4 walks and 4 strikeouts) suffering the loss for Paris UC despite a strong effort. Senart used a 4-run 3rd inning to push ahead of Paris UC, and they never looked back. After F. BROWN walked, D. FRANKLIN’s flyball to centerfield was dropped by Paris UC outfielder O. SAAVEDRA. After another crucial walk was allowed to F. HANVI, E. MARTINEZ ripped a 3 RBI double to left-center field on a 3-2 count to plate all three baserunners for Senart. Paris UC responded with 2 runs in the top of the 5th inning, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the strong pitching performance from BRELLE. Offensively, Paris UC had the only multi-hit peformances of the first game with newcomer S. O’HARA and O. SAAVEDRA collecting 2 hits each in the game.
In the second game, pitching for both teams was strong again with K. ATKINSON (2.0 innings, 0 hits, 0 earned runs, 1 walk and 0 strikeouts) picking up the win for Senart in relief of an outstanding pitching performance from S. MEURANT (7.0 innings, 8 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 walks and 4 strikeouts). Paris UC starting pitcher W. MUSSON (8.0 innings, 6 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk and 11 strikeouts) suffered another loss on the year despite a solid effort. The game went back-and-forth, but a key 2-run eighth inning pulled Senart ahead of Paris UC in the end. F. HANVI singled to centerfield with one out and then stole second base to get into scoring position. K. ATKINSON then plated HANVI with a big RBI double and later scored on a wild pitch from MUSSON. B. LORIENNE was the hit leader in the second game for Senart, collecting two hits during the game. For Paris UC, W. MUSSON collected 3 hits and 2 RBI of his own in the game.
{mrb-standing:france-2011}