Deurne Spartans Eliminated in Semis

Belgium’s representative in the semi-finals of the 2025 Baseball European Cup was no match for the Tenerife Marlins. The Deurne Spartans were very much dominated by the Spanish pitching.

Deurne Spartans 2 – 9 Tenerife Marlins

One could tell in advance that Deurne likely would not win this game as the opposing team is loaded with players from South- and Central America.

Looking to that fact, Spartans did a good job to keep it a game until the sixth inning, when it trailed by only three runs. But in the sixth inning, the Marlins ran away and never looked back.

Trailing 5-0 at the start of the fifth inning, Spartans got on the board in the top of that inning on an RBI double by Alexis Marquez and an RBI single by Daniel Bustamante.
But that was the only time, the Spartans could flex their muscles. In total, the team collected eight basehits, but they were too much spread out in the game to hurt their opponent a lot.

The only other opportunity to score was in the top of the third inning, when, with runners in scoring position, Alexis Marquez hit toward the second baseman, who threw the ball to home plate where Leonel Reina Viant was tagged out. After the fifth inning, in which they scored twice, their side was retired every inning.

Despite allowing eight runs on eleven hits, Elvis Polanco pitching performance was a tour-de-force, as he threw one-hundred-and-fourteen pitches in six innings. Hildemaro Requena earned the win. He lasted five frames in which he gave up two runs on seven hits and a walk, and struck out nine.

Wander Encarnaciòn had a perfect score as he went 5 for 5 with two RBI and three runs scored.

The Tenerife Marlins will face the winner of the other semi-final between Rouen Huskies and Montpellier Barracudas in tomorrow’s championships game.

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