Illustration photo for the article: Michael Ignouf. Maxime Lefevre for the Rouen Huskies.
Above: Mattis Meurant Short-stop for the Sénart Templiers. Photo credit Genn Gervot.
GELLAINVILLE May 26, 2022
– The Challenge de France, the flagship event of D1 baseball, is officially underway, and for the league’s stars, this is definitely the time to shine.
The winner of the four-day tournament of eight teams will earn a spot in next year’s Confederation Cup, one of Europe’s two inter-league club tournaments. But there’s also bragging rights on the line, as well as the promise of momentum heading into the resumption of the D1 regular season, the weekend of June 4/5.
The defending tournament champions, the Montpellier Barracudas, are of course eager to reclaim their title, but standing in their way are five other teams with a legitimate shot at the crown: the Rouen Huskies, the Montigny Cougars, the Savigny Lions, the Sénart Templiers, and the La Rochelle Buccaneers, who beat the Barracudas last Sunday.
As luck would have it, the Barracudas and the Buccaneers faced off again this afternoon, during the first day of the Challenge, at the Gellainville field, on the outskirts of Chartres. And as they’ve done all season, the exchanges went both ways, this time the pendulum swinging back in favor of Montpellier.
Above: Jena Michel Mayeur – Montpellier Barracudas. Photo credit: Benjamin Witte.
Against La Rochelle’s starting pitcher, Nicolas Antoine, the Barracudas were the first to get on the board, with a pair of runs in the first inning on a two-RBI single by American rookie Steve Anderson, who also hit a triple in the ninth inning and drew two walks.
Above: De La Rosa, Ramiro and Antoine of the La Rochelle Buccaneers. Photo credit Benjamin Witte.
The Barracudas added three more runs in the fourth to extend their lead to 5-1. But in the sixth inning, the Buccaneers bounced back with two runs of their own, prompting Montpellier manager Jean-Michel Mayeur to pull starting pitcher Mathis Nayral (5.1 innings, 7 hits, 3 runs).
However, Montpellier continued to add to their total and ultimately put the game out of reach. The top of the batting order was particularly effective for the Barracudas, with Mathis Guiraud and Pablo Brossier each going 3-for-3, and third hitter Fabian Kovacs adding two hits of his own.
A bright spot for La Rochelle was the performance of catcher Daniel Torres, who was incredible behind the plate, going 4-for-4 with 2 RBIs. In the end, however, the defending champions took the game by a final score of 8-3.
They’ll face the Sénart Templiers next, who also picked up a win on Thursday, albeit by a margin perhaps a little narrower than one might have expected given the team they were facing, the Toulouse Tigers (Stade toulousain), and the pitcher they chose to use, American Shane Priest.
Above: Alexander Perdomo of the Sénart Templiers battles Toulouse. Photo credit Glenn Gervot.
Above: Sénart swings. One of the many broken bats in the D1 championship. Photo credit: Glenn Gervot
The American rookie did not disappoint. He struck out the first three batters he faced and finished with 12 Ks in 7.1 innings of work. Meanwhile, he limited Toulouse to just four hits and one run.
Above: Toulouse at bat. Photo credit Glenn Gervot.
The Tigers put together their own solid pitching performance, first by Mathias Lacombe, who held the Templiers to just two runs in five innings, then by Kenny Esposito, who didn’t allow a hit in three innings of relief, but let an unearned run score.
Above: Stade toulousain on the mound. Photo credit Glenn Gervot.
Final score: 3-1 for Sénart.
While the Templiers and the Tigers were trading blows, games were also being played in Montigny, the other host site for this year’s Challenge. The Rouen Huskies, the defending D1 champions, and Metz Cometz, who, along with Toulouse, are one of the weaker teams in the tournament, were the first to take the field.
Above: Joris Bert for the Rouen Huskies. Photo credit Michael Ignouf.
The Huskies took full advantage of the mismatch to beat the Cometz right out of the gate, scoring a run in the first inning, then six more in the second. Two innings later, they added seven more runs en route to a 14-1 victory in just seven innings.
Above: Metz Cometz at bat. Photo credit Michael Ignouf.
Leading the charge for Rouen were Gabriel Harrison and Joris Bert, who each went 2-for-3. Five other Huskies collected hits in the game, while on the pitching side, they benefited from a solid performance by newcomer Will Moscato, a Franco-American player who pitches for Macalester College in Minnesota.
Above: The Cometz mound had a tough time against Rouen. Photo credit Michael Ignouf.
As a team, Metz only managed three hits in the game, two of them by Victorien Roze.
Later in the afternoon, it was the home team, the Montigny Cougars, who took the field, against the Savigny Lions.
Montigny has a better record than Savigny so far in the regular season, but the Lions shouldn’t be counted out as contenders, and they proved it by scoring in the third, fourth, fifth, and eighth innings to tally six runs and hang tough for the win.
Above: Lions vs Cougars duel at the plate. Photo credit Michael Ignouf.
Pierre-Emmanuel Planes, Axel Amoros, and his brother, Lilian Amoros, all went 2-for-3 in the game. Kudos to their pitchers as well. Gédéon Coste allowed just two runs (unearned) in 5.1 innings of work, and relievers Evertz Orozco and Alexis Paredes held Montigny to just one more run while allowing only three hits between them.
Above: Savigny at bat. One of the Lions’ 11 hits. Photo credit Michael Ignouf.
Above: Montigny still managed 9 hits. Photo credit Michael Ignouf.
Montigny will get a chance to bounce back tomorrow against the Metz Cometz, at 10 a.m. Savigny will face the Huskies later in the day (1:30 p.m.), and in Gellainville, the Toulouse Tigers will take on La Rochelle at 10 a.m., followed by the Sénart-Montpellier matchup at 1:30 p.m.
Benjamin Witte
Journalist/Journaliste/Periodista
9 Rue de l’Université
34000 Montpellier, France
+33 651 057 572 (mobile)
+33 950 166 812 (home)
Skype: benjaminwitte
Published online: Vincent Picard.
