2016 European Champions Cup: Tuesday, May 31

Today the European Champions Cup (ECC for short) has started in Rimini and San Marino, both located  on the east shore of the Italian peninsula.

Group A will play in San Marino and contains the following teams:

Curacao Neptunus (NED)
Fortitudo Bologna (ITA)
T&A San Marino (SM)
VOITH Heidenheim Heideköpfe (GER)

Group B will play in Rimini and contains the following teams:

A.S.D. Rimini (ITA)
Buchbinder Legionäre (GER)
Kotlarka Prague (CZE)
L&D Amsterdam Pirates (NED)

The number one and runner up of each group will advance to the semi finals on Friday.

Curacao Neptunus  14  –  9  VOITH Heidenheim Heideköpfe

Defending champion Curacao Neptunus teed off against the Heidenheim Heideköpfe.
Neptunus took a 5-1 lead after two innings and with Orlando Yntema on the mound, one would expect that this game would become a seven inning affair. So far Yntema has been practically unhittable in the Dutch Hoofdklasse this year. But much to everyone’s surprise, Heidenheim scored seven runs with Yntema on the mound. Yntema was replaced by Byron Cornelisse, who lasted 1.2 innings in which he gave up two runs on one hit and a walk. Eventually Berry van Driel and Kevin Kelly contained the lineup of the Heideköpfe as Van Driel pitched 1.2 scoreless innings with a strikeout and Kelly retired the last batter of the eighth inning.
Neptunus on its turn scored a total of fourteen runs for the 14-9 win. Four Neptunus batters hit a homerun: Gianison Boekhoudt hit a three run dinger as did Rien Vernooij, Dashenko Ricardo hit a two run homerun and Raily Legito hit a solo shot.
Because Heidenheim tied the game at eight in the fifth inning, Yntema did not get the win. That honor went to Byron Cornelisse.
Patrick Seyfried took the loss. In 4.1 innings he gave up five runs on seven hits.Best hitter for Neptunus was Raily Legito, who went 3 for 5 with a homerun, an RBI and two runs scored.

Buchbinder Legionäre  7  –  4  Kotlarka Prague

For five innings both teams were each other’s match, even when, after four scoreless innings, the teams scored twice each. So with the score tied at two in the bottom of the sixth, Prague’s Mitchell Nilson singled to first base, followed by a homerun to left field, hit by Daniel Vavrusa off Mike Bolsenbroek.
Until the ninth inning, it looked like Prague would walk away with the win, but Regensburg struck in the top of the ninth.
With runners on first and second, Marcel Jimenez doubled to center field and an error by Matej Sucha allowed both runners to score. Marek Cervenka loaded the bases by giving up two consecutive walks. Maik Ehmcke then singled to right field to drive in two more runs to give Regensburg a 4-2 lead. Michael Kral, who replaced Cervenka, gave up a single to Chris Howard, the first batter that he faced. With this single, Howard drove in an insurance run.
Daniel Mendelsohn retired the side in the bottom of the ninth to finish his three inning performance for the win. In three innings of relief, he gave up only two hits.
Marek Cervenka took the loss as he gave up the go-ahead run to Regensburg. In 8.2 innings, he was credited for seven runs on nine hits. He walked four and struck out as many.
Best hitter for Regensburg was Janis Mushik, who went 2 for 3 with an RBI and two runs scored.

T&A San Marino  3  –  5  Fortitudo Bologna

After a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning, San Marino extended their score with a run in the third inning. After Sebastiano Poma drew a lead off walk in the top of the first inning, he advanced to second on a sac bunt, laid down by Jack Santora and he advanced to third on a wild pitch. Poma scored on Joseph Mazzuca’s “hit”to third base as the latter got on base safely due to a throwing error by third baseman Francesco Fuzzi and advanced to second base on the play. When Francisco Imperiali singled to center field, Mazzuca scored the second run for San Marino.
But Bologna would make it a game again in the fourth and the fifth inning as the scored two runs and one run respectively.
Ronny Cedeno hit a lead off double down the right field line in the bottom of the fourth and advanced to third on Claudio Liverziani’s ground out to first base. After Alex Sambucci drew a walk, Tyler J. La Torre hit a bases clearing double to center field, to bring Bologna within one run of San Marino.
In the seventh, San Marino had a big opportunity to take a one run lead, but when Simone Albanese struck out swining, he left Mazzuca stranded at third.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Claudio Liverziani dealt the decisive blow to San Marino as he hit a two run homerun.
Even though Brent Buffa allowed two runners on base in the top of the ninth, he got out of the inning without any damage. Buffa pitched 1.1 innings for the win as he gave up one hit, one walk and struck out one.
Junior Oberto took the loss after 2.2 innings in relief in which he allowed two runs on three hits and a walk. He also struck out one.
Best hitter for Fortitudo Bologna was Ronny Cedeno as he hit three doubles out of four at bats with two runs scored.

L&D Amsterdam Pirates  6  – 2  A.S.D. Rimini

Since it is always hard to predict how strong the Italian teams are, it was difficult to tell who would turn out the winner in this game.

L&D Amsterdam Pirates took an early lead the team showed how small ball needs to be played. Remco Draijer bunted towards third base for the single and drove in Urbanus for the 1-0 lead. During the game L&D Amsterdam Pirates had some timely hits when Michael Duursma, Gilmer Lampe and Danny Rombley came through with runners on board to guide Amsterdam to a 4-0 lead in the third inning. In the fifth Gilmer Lampe came through with a double to drive in Nick Urbanus and in the seventh, Michael Duursma hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Nick Urbanus again.
In the bottom of the seventh, Robin Schel replaced Kevin Heijstek, who had cruised through six innings by allowing three hits and a walk and struck out five. But Schel lasted only one batter as he walked Jairo Ramos and was replaced by Tom de Blok. De Blok started by hitting Micro Caradonna with a pitch. With the bases loaded and two outs, Stefano Desimoni singled to left field and drove in Caradonna and Ramos for the first runs for Rimini Pirates.
Despite the fact that Rimini put a runner in scoring position in the ninth inning, the team did not score anymore, so L&D Amsterdam Pirates clinched a convincing 6-2 win over the current Italian Champion.

Kevin Heijstek earned the win and Alexis Candelario took the loss after 2.2 innings in which he gave up four runs (two earned) on five hits.

Best hitter for L&D Amsterdam Pirates was Nick Urbanus, who went 3 for 4 with a double and four runs scored.

Standings: