First round of the Challenge de France with four games (2 in Rouen and 2 in Chartres). Great weather, high-quality broadcasts with commentary and innovations (close-ups for Rouen and ball speed radar for Chartres with subtitled commentary). The eight teams have now played their first match and will follow up tomorrow with six more games.
Team highlights
The 2023 champions, Montpellier for the league and Montigny for the Challenge de France, lost their opening match, and that’s not a good sign as Challenge winners usually win their first game over 90% of the time.
The bottom two teams from the 2023 season (Metz and La Rochelle) won and secured the chance to play tomorrow afternoon, benefiting from two half-days of rest.
Metz no longer surprises us; they now have the level to beat any team. As for La Rochelle, they seem to be regaining the winning form that drove them early in the season.
Toulouse continued their early-season dominance, masterfully handling a disciplined Savigny side that couldn’t find a way past the Tigers’ solid defense.
Rouen suffered a heavy defeat against Sénart, conceding three runs in the first inning and struggling to solve Sénart’s pitcher Kimura. Sénart is slowly regaining their form after a shaky start to the season, while Rouen continues to struggle, missing several key players who have moved on.
Player highlights
The pitchers
The Challenge de France rule of seven innings instead of nine, and the removal of the rule requiring a JFL to start, means each team approaches pitching differently.
A non-JFL duel between Franklin de la Rosa for La Rochelle and Yorfrank Lopez for Montigny. Each threw over 100 pitches and went to the ninth inning (reminder: the Challenge de France is played over seven innings).
Metz also relied on two non-JFL pitchers (Adames for five innings and coach Priest). Montpellier did the same with non-JFL Gosselin and JFL Deleau in the seventh inning.
Toulouse used a JFL, Nathan Laot, who was very strong and only taken out in the seventh inning with two outs by coach Randy Perez. Savigny also started with a JFL, Gédéon Coste, for the first four innings, then handed over to non-JFL Arozco, who was dominant.
Rouen began with Arthur Magnien, replaced in the second inning by Esteban Prioul. Sénart stuck with their Japanese pitcher Kurima throughout the game.
The hitters
First, we note that these were more pitcher’s games, meaning defensive efforts outweighed offensive ones. Out of 205 at-bats, there were only: 0 home runs, 2 triples, 5 doubles, and 45 singles. That’s 75% of at-bats without a strong hit (K, BB, BBI, HBP, etc.). It was really low. Sénart had two top hitters, Ogawa and Brown, followed by Axel Hansch from Metz.
Predictions for the four first games of Friday, May 10th
First, the losers’ games
10 AM in Rouen: Rouen vs. Montigny
Rouen will wake up and show Montigny that they’re not as sharp in 2024 as they were in 2023.
10 AM in Chartres: Savigny vs. Montpellier
This will be close, with a slight edge to Savigny, who have more fresh legs on the bench.
Then the winners
1:30 PM in Rouen: La Rochelle vs. Sénart
La Rochelle has the potential to take down Sénart if their pitching performs. Note that Sénart will likely start their ace, HVRYTISHVILI.
1:30 PM in Chartres: Toulouse vs. Metz
Toulouse should also do well against Metz, who may have already played their trump card.
We’ll only predict the opponents for the 5 PM games next:
Metz/Montpellier in Chartres
Sénart/Montigny in Rouen
Photo credit: F. Launay
