I finished the regular season nicely, although a 2 for ten weekend was not my way of going out. I didn't even realize it, but I should have had a bet going with Danny the final weekend on who would have more hits. I think I may have been tied with him and Jendrick Speer going into the final weekend of the season for the team lead, but I didn't look at my stats until after the season was over. I will say that I was much more productive the second half of the season at the plate and I can only attribute that to getting stronger and getting back into "baseball shape." Here is the rugular season numbers for Danny and I.
| G | /PA/ | AB/ | H/ | 2B/ | 3B/ | HR/ | R/ | RBI/ | K/ | BB/ | IBB/ | HP/ | SF/ | SH/ | SB/ | CS/ | AVG/ | SLG/ | OBP/ | OPS |
|---|
| Daniel Meier | 28 | 130 | 112 | 38 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 23 | 24 | 19 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .339 | .607 | .403 | 1.010 |
| Nikolas Kosach | 28 | 135 | 108 | 36 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 27 | 11 | 16 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | .333 | .444 | .455 | .899 |
I was really confident going into the playoffs with the rest of the guys. We have the best German starter in the North, followed by Danny who had only had one small hicup the entire season against Pulheim. Danny had a misniscule 1.58 era going into the playoffs and Eugen Heilmann had 2.76 era and was 10-1. We felt great about our pitching for sure. Our offense was nothing to look over either. We were close to hitting .300 as a team and our defense had been pretty solid for the Bundislega.
With as much confidence as we could have we headed to Mannheim on early Friday afternoon and after a four hour drive we arrived at our hotel with time to relax and hang out until the second group of guys arrived just in time to go to a great Italian restaurant down the street from our hotel. It was an awesome meal and when we got to the hotel I tried my best to fall asleep as early as I could. I am not sure why, but I had a tough time sleeping. Danny was my rommie on the trip and he had a congested noise so he was snoring quit a bit, but not enough to keep me awake all night as I am used to being around a family of snorers. Regardless, I felt as though I could have slept better, but I felt ok by the time the games rolled. around.
Game one saw Mannheim attack early in the first as our former teammate from the Regensburg tournament, Dennis Kelly, lead the game off with a 2 strike homer to left center. It was hit well, but the 280 foot fence to left-center didn't help our cause. After that, Eugene had a tough time settling into a rhythm and surrendered another three consecutive runs on four more hits. He eventually settled in and got out of some big innings.
We did our part to get back into the game as we depended on a few defensive mistakes made by their starting pitcher and everybody's buddy, Shorty Franke. He was very effective against us as he threw a lot of strikes, got a lot of fly balls, and slowed the game down to his own pace. I did well against him. I popped up my first at-bat, but I felt I got myself out with a bad swing, then I hit a 2 strike double off the left filed wall, followed by a triple to the right center field wall (Remember this field is shaped like a cracker-jack box) and in my final at-bat I hit a hard ground ball to second. 2-4. The rest of our offense struggled a bit. When we tied the game up we had already ran into a couple of outs on the base-paths, and then the bats shut down.
The key mistakes in the game were a misplayed fly ball in that cost us a run, as well as miscommunication between our pitcher and the middle infielder. With runners on first and second we had a deceiving pick off play between the middle infielders and our pitcher, however we did not run the play and Eugen came to the plate instead with a fastball right down the middle. The worst part was that it was their nine hitter and he roped a single up the middle to take a one run lead in the 8th inning. We did not get the run back in the 9th and we lost game one by a score of 6-5. Upsetting as it was, we maintained a positive attitude in the dugout and knew to shift our focus to game two as we had Danny on the mound against another German pitcher who was young.
In game two we jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first off of some key hits. I thought that we would turn this game into a blowout early, however, this field played like no other. An easy fly ball to center which would be an out in a little league field bounded off the center of the wall and the wheels quickly fell off for us in the first inning of game two as Danny surrendered 5 runs off of a few "ballpark" hits. It was really frustrating to see him make good pitches and not get outs. The next inning proved more of the same as he struggled again. This time allowing 4 runs in the second. Danny was tired, really tired. I can't imagine what it is like to play nine innings in the sweltering heat at third base, hit in the 3 whole, and then be asked to shut down a very good offense in game two for nine innings. He has done such an amazing job all season that we forget how hard it is. Not to mention this is by far the best offensive team we have seen all season, and we are playing in their park. Mannheim was hitting a ridiculous .329 as a team this season and they had four guys in the lineup that had 6 or more home runs in only 28 games. We knew it was not going to be easy, but this game got out of hand really fast.
We managed to fight back for a few runs and I even came about two inches from hitting one out to right field, but it bounced hard off the top of the steal fence and directly to the right fielder who threw it in just as I was rounding first, like I hit the ball right at him. I had no chance at second, and as Danny was rounding third, he had no chance to score either. What a bummer. A single off the top of the ball. Danny later told me that he ripped his toe-nail off while he was stopping around third base.
Things fell apart foe us in the 8th inning as our defense took a dive and we couldn't even play catch anymore. We surrendered another five runs and got mercy-ruled. 16-6 the game was over before I even got a 4th at-bat in the 8th inning. What a terrible day! 0-2 in a best of 5 series. The drive home was tough and we could not manage to think about our back being against the wall the following weekend.
We need to win three straight, or I am coming in August; Not October as planned.
With as much confidence as we could have we headed to Mannheim on early Friday afternoon and after a four hour drive we arrived at our hotel with time to relax and hang out until the second group of guys arrived just in time to go to a great Italian restaurant down the street from our hotel. It was an awesome meal and when we got to the hotel I tried my best to fall asleep as early as I could. I am not sure why, but I had a tough time sleeping. Danny was my rommie on the trip and he had a congested noise so he was snoring quit a bit, but not enough to keep me awake all night as I am used to being around a family of snorers. Regardless, I felt as though I could have slept better, but I felt ok by the time the games rolled. around.
Game one saw Mannheim attack early in the first as our former teammate from the Regensburg tournament, Dennis Kelly, lead the game off with a 2 strike homer to left center. It was hit well, but the 280 foot fence to left-center didn't help our cause. After that, Eugene had a tough time settling into a rhythm and surrendered another three consecutive runs on four more hits. He eventually settled in and got out of some big innings.
We did our part to get back into the game as we depended on a few defensive mistakes made by their starting pitcher and everybody's buddy, Shorty Franke. He was very effective against us as he threw a lot of strikes, got a lot of fly balls, and slowed the game down to his own pace. I did well against him. I popped up my first at-bat, but I felt I got myself out with a bad swing, then I hit a 2 strike double off the left filed wall, followed by a triple to the right center field wall (Remember this field is shaped like a cracker-jack box) and in my final at-bat I hit a hard ground ball to second. 2-4. The rest of our offense struggled a bit. When we tied the game up we had already ran into a couple of outs on the base-paths, and then the bats shut down.
The key mistakes in the game were a misplayed fly ball in that cost us a run, as well as miscommunication between our pitcher and the middle infielder. With runners on first and second we had a deceiving pick off play between the middle infielders and our pitcher, however we did not run the play and Eugen came to the plate instead with a fastball right down the middle. The worst part was that it was their nine hitter and he roped a single up the middle to take a one run lead in the 8th inning. We did not get the run back in the 9th and we lost game one by a score of 6-5. Upsetting as it was, we maintained a positive attitude in the dugout and knew to shift our focus to game two as we had Danny on the mound against another German pitcher who was young.
In game two we jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first off of some key hits. I thought that we would turn this game into a blowout early, however, this field played like no other. An easy fly ball to center which would be an out in a little league field bounded off the center of the wall and the wheels quickly fell off for us in the first inning of game two as Danny surrendered 5 runs off of a few "ballpark" hits. It was really frustrating to see him make good pitches and not get outs. The next inning proved more of the same as he struggled again. This time allowing 4 runs in the second. Danny was tired, really tired. I can't imagine what it is like to play nine innings in the sweltering heat at third base, hit in the 3 whole, and then be asked to shut down a very good offense in game two for nine innings. He has done such an amazing job all season that we forget how hard it is. Not to mention this is by far the best offensive team we have seen all season, and we are playing in their park. Mannheim was hitting a ridiculous .329 as a team this season and they had four guys in the lineup that had 6 or more home runs in only 28 games. We knew it was not going to be easy, but this game got out of hand really fast.
We managed to fight back for a few runs and I even came about two inches from hitting one out to right field, but it bounced hard off the top of the steal fence and directly to the right fielder who threw it in just as I was rounding first, like I hit the ball right at him. I had no chance at second, and as Danny was rounding third, he had no chance to score either. What a bummer. A single off the top of the ball. Danny later told me that he ripped his toe-nail off while he was stopping around third base.
Things fell apart foe us in the 8th inning as our defense took a dive and we couldn't even play catch anymore. We surrendered another five runs and got mercy-ruled. 16-6 the game was over before I even got a 4th at-bat in the 8th inning. What a terrible day! 0-2 in a best of 5 series. The drive home was tough and we could not manage to think about our back being against the wall the following weekend.
We need to win three straight, or I am coming in August; Not October as planned.
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