A pleasant late-May weekend, not as sunny as we’d hoped, brought us plenty of games in Baseball Divisions 1 and 2, and a men’s Softball tournament in Montpellier broadcasted.
Division 1 Baseball
Matchday 6, we’re a third of the way through the season, and already the contenders are starting to level out. Across all Division 1 teams, some have found a bit of momentum, thanks to the return of American students.
Travel is always more challenging, especially due to personal issues for some players and financial problems for clubs, significantly altering team matchups, whether at home or away. Toulouse’s case is particularly striking. They traveled to Fenay to face Metz and failed to dominate as they had since the start of the season. Of course, facing them, a Metz team growing stronger by the day, which secured a very impressive 10-0 shutout in the first game and lost in the 10th inning of the second game by a single run.
Rouen and Savigny faced off against Limeil Brévannes, and the split was very tight between the two teams. Rouen lost the first game and managed to win the second thanks to Esteban Prioul. It’s clear that, like in the Challenge, there’s still a lot of fragility in the Huskies’ lineup.
Photo: F.Launay
Montpellier, the recent French Challenge winners, managed to keep the struggling Montigny team at bay. The latter are in crisis, with just one win in 10 games since the start of the season. Montpellier climbed the standings and gained confidence ahead of the upcoming European Cup, in which Montigny will also compete. Finally, the Boucaniers hosted the Templiers de Sénart, and the split was the order of the day. Sénart has strengthened but couldn’t keep up in the second game, letting a shaky pitching performance slip away, handing the Boucaniers a crucial victory.
In the standings, not much changed after this 6th matchday. Toulouse still leads, Montigny remains at the bottom. Savigny and La Rochelle are gearing up to battle for the top spot. Metz, four games back, and this might play against them at some point in the season, not having as much rest as the other teams. We’ll be back later in the week with a deeper dive into Division 1, analyzing players, stats, and big impressions.
Division 2 Baseball
Many expected results. Only one surprise: Valenciennes let a game slip against Ronchin. In Pool A, the Viperes are still top after this matchday, with the PUC not far behind. In the other pool, Nice leads ahead of Béziers and Clermont, who also went undefeated this weekend. No surprises, the favorites won, and sometimes by a lot, with a few mercy rules to shorten the games.
Once again, Division 2 is truly split between teams close to Division 1 level and teams not far from a hypothetical Division 3.
Division 1 Men’s Softball
The dominance of Montpellier’s Bracos is becoming truly powerful. They won all their games with significant point margins, over 10, and have comfortably distanced both Pessac and Nice. Only two matchdays remain in this small four-team championship, and it’s hard to see how the Bracos de Montpellier won’t take it.
