Baseball roundup
Bitburg gets two sweeps to open season
Bitburg’s defending European Division II baseball champion Barons opened their season 4-0 Friday and Saturday with dominating home doubleheader sweeps over the AFNORTH Lions of Division II and the Alconbury Dragons of Division III.
All-Europe pitcher Austin Schmidt got the Barons started to a 10-0 blanking of AFNORTH in Friday’s opener, retiring eight of the nine batters he faced and picking off the only base runner he allowed, who reached on an error. Schmidt fanned seven of the nine batters to whom he pitched.
Colton Lund pitched the final two innings and struck out four.
Evan Less stole three bases, and Eli Olson drove in two runs for Bitburg.
Less and Olson combined to blank AFNORTH 6-0 in Friday’s nightcap. Each pitcher allowed just one hit. Less struck out five in his four innings of work; Olson fanned four in three innings pitched.
Westin McKinney struck out 13 in his six inning pitched, but was undone by a five-run fifth built around four of the seven hits he allowed, an error and one of the three walks he issued.
AFNORTH fell to 2-2 on the season.
Saturday, Bitburg polished off Alconbury 16-0 and 29-5.
Schmidt and Dominik Ferneding one-hit the Dragons in the opener; Devin Billups picked up his first high-school victory in the nightcap, allowing just one earned run and benefiting from a 14-run first inning posted by his offense.
Alconbury fell to 1-3.
In other baseball of note:
Baumholder 15-3, Alconbury 0-5: Friday at Baumholder, Buc starter Zackery Buhrer pitched a no-hitter in the opener, terminated after four innings by the 15-run rule. No other details about the game or Game 2 were available.
Wiesbaden 17-13, Schweinfurt 1-2: Saturday at Schweinfurt, winning pitchers Justin Jones struck out six and drove in four runs in the opener, and Gary Miskovsky fanned five and drove in four runs in the nightcap.
For the day, Miskovsky was five-of-seven with a triple as the Warriors evened their overall and Eastern Region record at 2-2.
Schweinfurt, whose Derek Shreve was a combined two-for-three on the day, fell to 2-4 overall and in the East.
Ramstein 18-23, Lakenheath 8-2: Saturday at Ramstein, the Royals rode big first-innings to the sweep, according to coach Glenn Porter. Ramstein struck for nine first-inning runs off seven walks and just two hits in the opener, then banged out 15 hits in their first at-bat in the nightcap, when 18 runs crossed the plate.
All-Europe pitcher Jon Grotelueschen surrendered just two hits en route to the Game 1 victory which upped his season record to 3-0. One of the hits was Taylor Portman’s two-run homer.
In Game 2, Justin Pendergrass, who went four-for-four, Rylee Moore and winning pitcher Dustin Labit each homered for Ramstein, and Grotelueschen stroked three singles in four plate appearances.
Labit struck out the side twice, and Christian Elliott, who collected two doubles, pitched the game’s final inning to help Ramstein advance to 6-0 on the season.
Ansbach 4-12, Vilseck 2-6: Saturday at Ansbach, Jake Voorhees and T.J. Propp combined for a seven-hitter in Game 1, and Phillip Knigge and Jose Fuentes prevailed in the nightcap as the Cougars posted a sweep for new coach Chris York.
Voorhees struck out five in his three innings of work and Propp 10 in the four innings he pitched in Game 1. Damiaen Quiocho’s run-scoring single delivered the game-winning run, York said.
Ansbach, a D-II school which improved to 2-2 overall and in the Eastern Region with the sweep of their D-I guests, rode a four-run fifth to a five-run lead I the nightcap that Vilseck (2-2) was unable to overcome. The inning was fueled, York said, by Matt Phipps’ lead-off double.
Naples 9, Vicenza 4: Saturday at Naples, the host team completed a weekend sweep of Vicenza on Dylan Livesay’s three-hitter.
Joseph Pitts backed Livesay, who struck out nine in six innings of work, with a three-for-four outing at the plate that allowed the Wildcats to open their season with a 3-1 record. Friday, Naples downed Vicenza 8-4 behind Jono Higgins’ two-RBI, three-for-three game.
Naples split two games with Aviano, according to Naples coach Duke Marlow, losing 15-10 on Friday and winning 9-8 on Saturday.
Nik Weiser recorded the win for the Saints on Friday, backed by Ryan Perran, who went three-for-four with four RBIs; Chris Cisna, who was two-for-two, and Myron McRae, who doubled and tripled in three at-bats.
Saturday, Sam Murdoch pitched five and two-thirds innings to collect the win for Naples.
In another Friday game at Naples, Aviano downed Sigonella 11-9 on Friday, Marlow reported, despite striking out eight times against Jaguars’ pitcher Chase Berryhill. Cisna had the big blow for Aviano, a three-run homer.
