Ideal Start for the Host

Team Germany beats China on Opening Night

by Tobias Diehl

The 2009 Baseball World-Cup started with a 14:1-victory for Team Germany. In front of a crowd of 5,300 international baseball fans IBAF vice-president, Martin Miller, threw out the first pitch to open the tournament. A colorful opening ceremony paved the way for Germany‘s second victory in World Cup history in a one-sided game against China.

Germany‘s offense collected 14 Hits and four players had more than one hit on opening night. Third baseman Dominik Wulf had a perfect start into the tournament. Germany‘s number three hitter collected three hits, including a double and a home run, and collected five RBIs and scored three runs. Chinese Catcher Wang Dong had a team-high two hits in three at-bats and collected his team‘s only RBI.

Starting pitcher Enorbel Marquez-Ramirez for Germany walked the leadoff, but his defensive helped him out with a double play on the first pitch. And Marquez never looked back, he kept the opposition hitless until the fourth and without a run until the fifth. The Cuban-born Pitcher struck out seven and walked on in five and two third innings of work.

His counterpart, submarine-pitcher, Shuai Li, had a better start and struck out the first two German batters. But with two outs and two strikes, Third baseman Dominik Wulf, came up to bat and hit a line drive home run over the left field fence to give Team Germany an early lead. That was all the damage Team Germany could muster in the first, but in the third the Chinese would not be so lucky. The German team scored five runs on five Hits and two Errors and with one out Shuai Li‘s day on the mound ended and fifteen-year-old left hander Feng Chen came from the bullpen. The pitcher change did not have the desired effect, Germany scored another two runs before the Chinese defense could end the inning.

Leading by eight runs after three innings German manager Greg Frady saw the chance to give more players some playing time. Robert Gruber came into the game for Left fielder Simon Gühring and Marvin Appiah came in to bat for designated-hitter, Michael Franke. In the sixth inning Germany took advantage of a dropped fly ball by center fielder Kai Peng and a fielding error by shortstop Xang-Chang Lee to score another two runs.

In the sixth inning Team China put a run on the scoreboard. Kai Peng scored on Wang Dong‘s double to right field. An error by second baseman Philipp Howard ended Marquez-Ramirez‘s day on the mound and Philipp Hoffschild came on the mound in his home stadium. The right hander struck out Jian-Tao Wang to end the inning and keep Team China from doing further damage. But Hoffschild‘s offense was not done with doing damage to China‘s run average, Wulf‘s double cleared the bases to give Germany a 14:1-lead. The game ended due to the ten-run-rule after another scoreless inning by the chinese offense. After a strike‘em out throw‘em out double play Frady put Nils Hartkopf on the mound to get Germany‘s last out. Hartkopf did his job striking Hui Guo to close out the game.

Not knowing what to expect from the newly formed Chinese national team, turned out not to be a problem for Germany. The next two opponents will be of a different caliber. But with the 14:1-victory Frady‘s team took a huge step towards the second round of the World Cup. In tomorrow‘s game the USA and Venezuela will square off, with the Americans as a favorite for first place in Group E. On friday the host will be back on the field, playing the USA at 7 p.m. after the Game between China against Venezuela during the afternoon.

More info on www.baseballwm09.de and www.2009baseballworldcup.com

Photo: Gregor Eisenhuth, www.eisenhuth-photographie.de