By Mark Patton
Published: July 31, 2010
By Mark Patton
Published: July 30, 2010
The Kaiserslautern Military Community all-stars pounded out an 18-4 victory Friday against an overmatched Moldova squad at the Little League Baseball’s European Regional tournament at Kutno, Poland.
A day earlier, the team suffered its first defeat of the tournament, dropping a 6-4 contest to Ukraine.
By Mark Patton
Published: July 27, 2010
The Kaiserslautern Military Community's 11- and 12-year-old all-stars made a strong statement Tuesday on the first day of Little League Baseball's European Regional tournament at Kutno, Poland by punishing Belarus 13-1.
KMC was never truly tested as it got off to an early lead and never looked back. The game was stopped in the fourth inning due to Little League Baseball's 10-run "mercy rule."
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 22, 2010
Nathan Miller and Jessica Miller of Grafenwoehr, Andrew Overfield of
Stuttgart and Leigh Plowman of Garmisch held on to the age- and gender-group
leads after Saturday’s Ansbach leg of the 11-race 2010 U.S. Forces Europe
Mountain Bike Challenge.
Of the four leaders, only men’s seniors' (35-44 years) pacesetter Overfield
won at Ansbach, the sixth stop in this year's series. He earned 12 series points
for leading his age group last Saturday to pull ahead in the overall race 56-47
over Joseph Patterson of Grafenwoehr. Patterson picked up four points for
finishing third Saturday.
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 19, 2010
With ticket prices starting at just 8 Euros, the week-long European American Football championship tournament offers American fans on the wrong side of the pond, gridiron-wise, a chance to watch their favorite sport live.
Germany opens the event by taking on Austria at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Frankfurt’s Commerzbank Arena, the same home field formerly chewed up by the Frankfurt Galaxy of the defunct NFL-Europe League.
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 17, 2010
The Kaiserslautern Military Community Renegades, unbeaten pool champions at Little League Baseball’s Europe-Middle East-Africa Junior League Regional tournament at Kutno, Poland, found themselves stifled in a 6-1 loss to unbeaten Ukraine in Friday’s semifinals and a 12-2 drubbing by Lithuania in Saturday morning’s third-place game.
“We just didn’t bring our bats,” KMC manager Matt Van Parys said by telephone after Saturday’s loss to Lithuania, a team the Americans nipped 8-7 in pool play Thursday. “Our defense played well, but we just didn’t hit.”
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 15, 2010
The Kaiserslautern Military Community Renegades erased 2-0, 6-2 and 7-6 deficits Thursday to move unbeaten into Friday’s semifinals of Little League Baseball’s Europe-Middle East-Africa regional tournament with a 9-8 victory over previously unbeaten Lithuania. The Americans are to face unbeaten Ukraine at 11 a.m. Friday in quest of the EMEA title and a berth in Little League Baseball’s Junior League World Series Aug. 15-21 in Taylor, Mich.
According to KMC coach Matt Van Parys, starter Ryan Burk, who allowed just one earned run in two innings of work, and reliever Josh Neal, who pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, were the keys to the victory which resulted in a 4-0 record and a pool championship for the U.S. 13-14-year olds.
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 14, 2010
The Naples milcom entry in Little League Baseball’s Europe-Middle East-Africa Junior League regional fell to 0-2 Tuesday with a 13-0 loss to South Africa. With just one pool-play game left, Thursday against Moldova, the Italy-based Americans were eliminated from contention for their pool championship and a berth in Friday’s semifinals.
The unbeaten Kaiserslautern Military Community Renegades, the other American entry in the EMEA Junior League regional, also were idle Wednesday. They’ll play Lithuania on Thursday, probably with the pool title at stake. But win or lose Thursday, they’re guaranteed a semifinal berth, either as the pool champ or runner-up.
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 13, 2010
Ryan Burk went three-for-four Tuesday to lift the 13-14-year-old all-stars from the Kaiserslautern Military Community to a 10-4 victory over Bulgaria champion Doupnitza at Little League Baseball’s Europe-Middle East-Africa Junior League regional tournament in Kutno, Poland.
The Americans, idle Wednesday, will take a 3-0 record into their final pool-play game Thursday against Lithuanian champion Vilnius. A victory against the Lithuanians, whom KMC coach Matt Van Parys expects to be the best team his squad has faced so far, would hand KMC the pool championship. But win or lose, the Americans, who have won their three games by an average score of 15-3, are assured a berth in Friday’s semifinals of this 13-nation event since both the Nos. 1 and 2 from their pool go to the semis. At 3-0 and with head-to-head victories over the rest of the pool, KMC can finish no lower than second.
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 12, 2010
American 13-14-year-old softball players from Ramstein and Naples and the consolidated U.S. Senior League (15-16 years) baseball team suffered lost weekends at their respective European Little League Regional tournaments.
Ramstein’s juniors went 0-3 Thursday-Saturday in Cairo Montenotte, Italy, and their co-nationals from Naples finished 1-2 to miss out on Saturday’s title game, won 3-0 by Friuli, Italy, over Emilia, Italy. The victory earned the girls from Friuli a trip to Little League’s Junior Softball World Series Aug. 15-21 in Kirkland, Wash.
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 8, 2010
The Kaiserslautern Military Community All-Stars are just one of 13 teams squaring off next week in Kutno, Poland, for a berth in Little League Baseball’s Junior League World Series in Taylor, Mich., in August.
But unlike past U.S. milcom entries in Little League European regionals, the KMC 13-14-year-olds are going into this one with a solid idea of what awaits them, thanks to the Little League World Series experience five players earned last year in Williamsport, Pa.
“Having the experience of playing there will help a lot,” said shortstop-pitcher-catcher Jacob Van Parys, 14, just before practice Wednesday evening. “We’ll have a lot of time to talk to the others about it on the van ride (the 13-hour drive to Poland).”
Van Parys, whose father Matt is managing this year’s team, will be giving new teammates the benefit of his experiences in Kutno and in a stateside Little League World Series — knowledge he amassed last summer as part of KMC’s European Regional champion Little League team.
“It’ll be a bit of déjà vu,” 14-year-old pitcher-shortstop Matt Zembraski, a teammate of Van Parys on last year’s champions, said about a repeat shot at a World Series berth. “But I expect a better field this year. We’ll have to work for it this year.”
That’s fine with Sal Vargas of Ramstein, a 14-year-old third baseman-pitcher, who’ll be making his first trip to Kutno when the team departs Friday morning.
“I’m really excited,” Vargas said. “We’ve worked hard to get there. I can’t wait to play. There might be 13 teams, but we’ll be the team to beat.”
Play begins Sunday. We’ll try to keep fans posted, but they also can follow the tourney at Little League’s European Web-site, www.eteamz.com/llbeurope.
Seniors clinch berth in semis
Thanks to a 15-3 hammering of the Netherlands on Wednesday evening, the U.S. 15-16-year-old all-stars guaranteed themselves a berth in Saturday’s semifinals of the Europe-Middle East-Africa Senior League Regional at Novara, Italy.
The Americans — players from KMC, Stuttgart, Wiesbaden and Heidelberg going under the sobriquet of Stuttgart American Little League – were to play Italy at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in their final pool-play game. But all that was at stake in that game for the 3-0 Americans was seeding for the knock-out round.
Saturday’s winner advances to next month’s Senior League World Series in Bangor, Maine. Information on this event, as well as on two LL softball regionals next week in Italy, is available at www.eteamz.com/llbeurope.
By Rusty Bryan
Published: July 6, 2010
NOVARA, Italy – Trevin Stein and Dylan Measells singled home the winning runs Monday and Tuesday as the Germany American District I all-stars claimed 9-8 and 13-12 victories over Germany and Poland, respectively, at Little League Baseball’s European Senior League Regional tournament for 14-16-year-olds. Both hits were walk-offs which capped last-inning rallies, according to U.S. coach Larry Tannenbaum.
The Americans, a combined team from Ramstein, Stuttgart, Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg and Wiesbaden, trailed 8-7 going into the bottom of the seventh on Monday. Jack Smith opened the inning with a walk and moved to third on a double by Justin Pendergrass. After Pendergrass was retired in a rundown, Austin Schmidt doubled home Smith to tie the game, and Stein followed with a single which plated Schmidt with the game-winner.
