Barflies WIN Despite Hagen’s Strong Offense

It was a great day for a baseball gamein the German NRW Landesliga. The Hagen Chipmunks were hosting the Bochum Barflies in the back round of the 2022 season. The Barflies won the first match 6 to 21.

The Barflies put one up in the Top of the 1st, but Hagen answered back with three of their own thanks to a few errors by Bochum as they got used to the hard rocky infield. Bochum caught a break in the second when Hagen’s runner was called out on the bare-handed throw from P Balk to Sinev. Junga closed out the 1-2-3 inning with his catch on a fly ball to the right-center gap.

After the Barflies tied it up in the third, Hagen answered with two more in the third. The strong relay though from Noa-Bolano to Dudel and on to P Balk ended the Chipmunk rally when they tried to stretch a double into a triple.

Bochum capitalized on a few errors, doubles by Froning and Brückmann. The four run inning could have been five or more if not for an unfortunate call at home. On the fly ball confusion on the basepaths ensued. The relay home was on time, but dropped by the catcher. In order to avoid a collision with the Catcher, P Balk made a spectacular jump over him to score. Unfortunately the umpire thought the ball was in the glove when the swipe tag was made on the landing.

Bochum continued to manufacture runs, with two more in the 5th and another in the 7th. This hit up the middle by Noa-Bolano in the 5th sealed the win for the Barflies. But the game’s excitement didnt end there. Hagen made things exciting with bases loaded and their clean-up man at the plate. With the count 2-2, Hagen put on the hit and run with the runner at third breaking home. Not knowing what the call was, Hagen was able to get into the rundown and make it home on an overthrow. But it was S Balk that had cashed in on a strikeout to end the inning making the rundown irrelevant.

Bases were loaded again in the bottom of the eight when a hit off the plate took dribbled to S Balk. Without any stress he tossed to Schulz for the force at home.

Down by three in the bottom of the 9th, Hagen tried to bunt for a base hit. This is where training paid off, and always alert, Schulz made it look easy by scoping it up and throwing to Sinev at first. By the way, let’s not forget Sinev’s solid performance at first, cleaning up after some messy throws to get the outs.

Back in the 9th, Hagen got a baserunner. Anticipating the steal attempt, Schulz made a solid throw to Brückmann who made a great tag for the second out. S Balk closed the game with a strike out.

Theis won the match in 5 solid 5 innings of pitching. He gave up 5 runs, 3- earned. He struck out 5 and walked 4. S Balk came in for four innings, walked three, struck out 5 and both runs were un-earned to give him the save.