Bericht von: Roland Eidherr | Werner HarrasserVikes sweep Indians
In a game that already had great meaning to both teams, despite the early stages of the season, the VIKINGS managed to stay on top of the Dornbirn Indians, winning their first two home games of the season with 9:2 and 13:3 (8 Innings).
The Indians opted to hold back their strongest starter, Negishi, for the second game of the double-header and started with Fred Strasser on the mound. His counterpart on the Kufstein side was Werner Harrasser, who struggled with his control early on but still held the Indians almost scoreless for 8 innings. Despite having numerous baserunners a superb effort by the whole Vikings defense held the guests from Dornbirn to just 2 runs, making clutch plays to end threats with bases loaded and runners in scoring position a couple of times. The Vikings offense had a solid day and kept scoring continuously, executing the usual aggressive baserunning the team is known for. After a couple of runs had been manufactured early on, the VIKINGS went with a secure lead of 9:2 into the ninth frame when they gave the ball to Koichi Hida, who had a good first outing of the season, being helped by a double play. It was good to see that the Vikes were swinging the bats well, even against the strong relief pitcher Yazzie.
Markus Wurnig was the starting pitcher for Kufstein in the second game, and most unfortunately he had to leave the contest in the second inning due to an injury with the bases loaded and no outs. He was relieved by Bernie Eidherr, who managed to get out of the jam with considerably little damage done by the Indians, who also ran themselves into troubles with a few baserunning blunders. Negishi was pitching a solid game for the Indians, but did not find the same support from his defense as did Eidherr, so the Vikings were able to build up a 7-run lead going into the 8th inning. Eidherr was cruising on the mound, so coach Franky Gruber decided not to bring in Michael Chwalla, the designated closer for this game, too soon. In fact, he was not needed at all as the Vikes scored the necessary 3 runs to end the game early with a mercy-rule score of 13:3 in the bottom half of the 8th.
The two wins were imperative for the Kufstein team to move up in the standings and not to lose contact with the league’s leading teams.
The highlight of game one was a solo-home run by Werner Harrasser, the first of the team since the league switched from aluminium to wooden bats this year. Catcher Chris Bunk received the spotlight in game two by gunning down the two fastest runners of the Indians, Negishi and Intemann, in consecutive stealing attempts, at second base. An almost perfect defensive performance showed the right way back to a good form for the team which was hampered by poor defensive outings in its season opener against the Metrostars 3 weeks ago. Next in town are the 5th-placed Wanderers who are expected to put up a strong fight in a battle for 4th place, that guarantees a playoff spot in September. Game time is 1 p.m. on May 1st.
Roland Eidherr.
in Kufstein, 13.00 Uhr
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in Kufstein, 15.00 Uhr
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