Press Release Hellenic Amateur Baseball Federation
This year, 7 teams participated in the Hellenic Baseball League (HBL). Of those 7 teams, only 1 was from a city other than Athens, Dias of Patras. The season started on the 1st of April and the last game of the playoffs was played on December 2nd. The regular season ended on the 14th of October with the 5 time national champion, Spartakos Glyfadas, in first place with an 11 and 1 record.
The regular season standings of the entire league was:
Place |
G/B |
Pct. |
Points |
Team |
Games |
Wins |
Losses |
1st |
0 |
0.917 |
23 |
SPARTAKOS GLYFADAS |
12 |
11 |
1 |
2nd |
2 |
0.750 |
21 |
MAROUSI 2004 |
12 |
9 |
3 |
3rd |
2 |
0.750 |
21 |
LEADERS VOULIAGMENIS |
12 |
9 |
3 |
4th |
4 |
0.583 |
19 |
EVRYALY GLYFADAS |
12 |
7 |
5 |
5th |
7 |
0.333 |
16 |
MILONAS NEAS SMYRNIS |
12 |
4 |
8 |
6th |
9 |
0.167 |
14 |
OLYMPIADA PERISTERIOU |
12 |
2 |
10 |
7th |
11 |
0.000 |
12 |
DIAS PATRAS |
12 |
0 |
12 |
The playoffs started on October 20th with the regular season 2nd place Marousi 2004 team facing off against the regular season 3rd place Leaders Vouliagmenis team in a best of 5 semi-final series. The regular season 1st place Spartakos Glyfadas team faced off against the regular season 4th place Evryaly Glyfadas team in the other best of 5 semi-final series. After eliminating their opponents, Spartakos Glyfadas and Marousi 2004 faced each other in the final best of 5 series that would determine this years Championship team.
This final match-up between the two best teams in Greece proved to be a thriller. Marousi got off to a great start by easily defeating Spartakos by mercy rule in only 8 innings with a final score of 16-4 in game 1. The second game proved to be a much more even match with the two teams tied 10-10 after 9 innings. In the top of the 10th, Spartakos managed to go ahead by 1 run, but Marousi responded in the bottom of the 10th with 2 runs to win the game and obtain a commanding 2 game to 0 lead in the series.
However, the Spartakos team bounced back and won the next 2 games by mercy rule scores in 7 innings each. Game 3 ended with Spartakos on top with a score of 15 – 5 and game 4 ended with an 11 – 0 shutout. With the series tied at 2 games each, Spartakos forced Marousi into playing a decisive game 5 of the series.
The much anticipated game 5 turned out to be a relatively close game despite the fact that Spartakos took the lead from the very first inning and never looked back. The final score of 10 – 8 was joyously celebrated by the Spartakos team as it gave Spartakos its first championship title since 2009 and its 6th title overall. This 6th Greek Championship made Spartakos the Greek team with the most Greek Championships (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, & 2012). Marousi 2004 has 5 championships (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, & 2011), and the Panhers of Patras have won one championship in 2010. (Note that no Greek championship was played in 2008.)
An additional game was played between the two semifinalists, Evryaly Glyfadas and Leaders Vouliagmenis to determine their final 3rd or 4th place ranking in the championship. Evryaly won that game 16 – 12, thus taking 3rd place.
The final rankings for the 2012 Greek Championship are as follows:
1st Place: Spartakos Glyfadas
2nd Place: Marousi 2004
3rd Place: Evryaly Glyfadas
4th Place: Leaders Vouliagmenis
5th Place: Milonas Neas Smyrnis
6th Place: Olympiada Peristeriou
7th Place: Dias Patras