All matches have been played, and the verdict is in: the 8th-placed team from 2023 will remain in D1 next year. The Cometz traveled last weekend to Béziers, the D2 champions. They secured their spot in D1 for next season by winning 2-1.
Béziers put up a strong fight, showing courage, support from the crowd, and determination to reach D1. After the euphoria of winning the D2 French championship, they still had to beat the 8th-placed D1 team. No hard feelings for the Pirates, who are ultimately satisfied with their season, both for their high-level performance and their regional and youth teams. They’ll keep building strength and will be ready to go in 2024 to repeat the feat.
The French D1 has seen some shuffling in recent years regarding the number of teams. From 12 in 2019, it dropped to 11 in 2021, then to 10 in 2022 and 2023. Next year, there will be just 8. Two teams that finished at the bottom of the standings—Nice and PUC—will be playing in Division 2 next season. Notably, PUC has performed well in youth categories this year. We’ll cover that in future articles.
Metz had benefited from an administrative promotion in 2019 and nearly faced both a sporting and administrative relegation in 2023. That won’t be the case. Next year, we’ll have three teams around Paris (Sénart, Montigny, and Savigny), two outlying teams—Rouen to the west and Metz to the east—and two teams in the south (Montpellier and Toulouse), plus one in the west-central region (La Rochelle). That leaves gaps in the center, southeast, north, and northwest of France. The balancing system will be working overtime. We already know that the eight teams will face each other seven times in a home-and-away format, making for 14 matchdays in the championship.
But let’s get back to Metz and their President David Ten Eyck:
BTVF: What’s your overall feeling as President about these playoffs?
I’m very proud of our players’ performance. They prepared well for this moment and delivered when it counted, beating a strong Béziers team that was determined to reach D1 and put us under pressure all weekend. I salute the fighting spirit of the Pirates and the energy of their supporters, who brought the atmosphere all weekend.
BTVF: How did the team handle this do-or-die moment?
It’s a collective success that shows the mental strength of our players and the determination of our club. Despite those early-season losses in the 9th inning that knocked us out of the playoffs quickly… despite the many injuries we faced… we kept working and improving, and we were there, at the right level, for the season’s key moment. I’m especially proud of the progress our young players made this season. We started every game with 7 ‘JFL’ players on the field, six of them under 23. That bodes well for the future.
BTVF: Some players surely stood out in these improvements?
We focus on the team, of course—but there are individual performances worth highlighting. Like Clément Noblet, who is taking a break from baseball after this season but worked hard to see it through, catching 27 innings after Matic’s injury. Shane Priest, on the pitching side, who did everything to recover from injury for these games and made two crucial saves. Victorien Roze, who returned from injury to anchor our offense and infield and fulfill his role as captain. Corentin Maimbourg, who had to learn a new position in just a month for these playoffs and has already become one of our key players at just 17. And of course, Pierre Cézard, who played his last game as D1 manager yesterday… the end of a 14-year managerial career that began in Regional 2 and ends with a win that secures our place in an 8-team D1.
BTVF: The club certainly comes out a winner?
For the club, this marks the end of the first chapter in our D1 adventure. In 2019, when the league expanded to 12 teams, if you’d asked French baseball insiders to name the eight clubs that would survive a contraction, very few would have bet on Metz. And yet—here we are… the last man standing from the 12-team D1 experiment. We can be very proud of that. And now, onward to new adventures!
