By Alex Gorrin
The 2016 baseball season in Bulgaria kicked off to an interesting start on Saturday, April 16. Eight teams will fight for the National Championship title. Here are the contenders:
- AAS Wolves Pancharevo-Sofia
- Akademiks Sofia
- Athletic Kozloduy
- Athletic Sofia
- Buffaloes Blagoevgrad
- Junak Sofia
- Lions NSA Sofia
- Sofia Blues
A prominant figure missing in the above are the Dupnitsa Devils. Unfortunate turns of events mainly caused by lack of financing have caused the 2-time National Champion (last time as recently as 2012) to abandon the 2016 season. The baseball and softball family in Bulgaria really hope the Devils will be back as quickly as possible. Minor loss of talent or skills will be seen on national level for the upcoming baseball season, though, as a great number of Devils players have joined various other clubs, the Akademiks Sofia mainly. The talented income as well as a win against Junak Sofia on openning day mean the oldest Bulgarian club (3-time champion in1990, 1991, 1992) will most likely join Top Four contention come the end of the regular season. After each team plays a home and away game versus the rest in a regular season match-up, the top four seeds will eliminate each other to the top (semifinal then final playoff match-ups). As the Devils are gone, the other three dominant teams during the playoffs in past years, Buffaloes Blagoevgrad, Sofia Blues, Athletic Sofia will be locked in yet again.
Here are the results from the opening weekend:
April 16
Akademiks Sofia – Junak Sofia 13:7
Sofia Blues – Athletic Kozloduy 16:1
April 17
Akademiks Sofia – Athletic Kozloduy 19:9
Sofia Blues – Lions NSA Sofia 16:0