The 2022 Confederation Cup is set to be just huge, here’s why
French baseball won’t be represented when the crème de la crème of European baseball clubs gather in June in Bonn, Germany, for the Champions Cup, the continent’s premier inter-league tournament. And that’s because, at last year’s event, the French entry, Rouen’s Huskies, finished dead last.
That’s the bad news.
But the relegation from the so-called « A Cup » also has a silver lining, as they say in English. The upside is that this year’s Confederation Cup (the « B Cup », as it’s informally known) won’t have one but TWO French teams in attendance: the Huskies, six-time French D1 champions; and Montpellier’s Barracudas, who won last year’s French Challenge tournament.
That means TWICE the excitement, TWICE the drama and intrigue, and TWICE the chance for one of France’s D1 teams to take home the trophy!
Yes, let’s dream.
Not only that, but the event, formerly the CEB Cup, will be held in France, with Rouen and Montigny-le-Bretonneaux (home of the Cougars) as hosts. What all this means is that if there’s ever a time to get excited about the Confederation Cup, it’s now!
Here are some key details about the tournament:
When?
If all goes as planned, the tournament will kick off on Wednesday, June 8, and wrap up on Sunday, June 12.
Where?
As previously mentioned, games will be held in the Normandy city of Rouen and in Montigny-le-Bretonneaux, southwest of Paris.
Who plays who?
The WBSC just answered that question in an article published last week, noting, among other things, that Rouen and Montpellier’s teams will be in separate pools.
The Huskies will be in Pool A, which also includes Minsk, Belarus; Vienna’s Metrostars, Austria; and the Hoboken Pioneers, just across the Belgian border.
Joining the Barracudas in Pool B are the Tenerife Marlins Puerto Cruz, from the Canary Islands (Spain); Switzerland’s Therwil Flyers; and Croatia’s Olimpija Karlovac.
Of these, only two – Minsk and the Therwil Flyers – participated in last year’s CEB Cup, hosted by the Sénart Templiers and featuring just six teams. Minsk finished fourth in the event. The winless Flyers came in last.
Sénart finished second, though they only lost one game and beat the tournament winner, Czech team Draci Brno, on the final day. Both teams had identical 4-1 records, but Brno, thanks to a run differential advantage, finished as champion.
And what if…?
As last year’s Cup only featured six teams, there were no semifinals or finals. In other words, all the competition took place in a round-robin format.
This year’s event will be different in that regard, given that it will feature eight teams split into two pools. Presumably, after an initial round-robin phase, the top two teams from each pool will advance to the semifinals.
That raises the possibility that Rouen and Montpellier could meet either in the semifinals or in the championship match, and… ooh la la, how exciting would that be?
The Hoboken Pioneers will be in attendance (Credit: Hoboken Pioneers)
Recall that the Barracudas qualified for the Confederation Cup by winning last year’s French Challenge tournament. And they did so emphatically against none other than… the Huskies! Montpellier won the match 15-1.
A month later, however, Rouen had the last laugh by beating Montpellier (three games to one) in the D1 semifinals. The Huskies then beat Sénart in the league final, though just barely, edging the Templiers in the 10th inning of the fifth and final game of the series.
It’s clear we’re getting ahead of ourselves, but a France vs. France final – between two teams that have much to prove against each other – isn’t out of the realm of possibility. And if that happens, expect some serious fireworks.
Benjamin Witte (Text and photos)
