The team we featured yesterday wasn’t the only one in Group A struggling to stay consistent in 2021.
Like Montigny’s Cougars, Savigny’s Lions also had their ups and downs. Hot at the start of the season, especially on the offensive side, they hit a speed bump midway through, just as Montigny was starting to turn things around.
Pitcher Mauricio Robles, a Venezuelan rookie who earlier in his career briefly played in the MLB, had a particularly tough stretch. A shaky defense didn’t help, nor did a mid-season injury to Alfredo Angarita, the team’s best hitter, who was sidelined for two weeks.
Suddenly facing the threat of missing the playoffs, the Lions found themselves in a must-win situation against Paris UC on the final weekend of the regular season.
Fortunately for Savigny, an offensive explosion combined with solid pitching from Gedeon Coste and Evertz Orozco gave them the two wins they needed. And with their confidence restored, Savigny put in a strong performance in the semifinals, ultimately bowing out to Sénart, but in games that went down to the wire, one after another.
Can the Lions repeat the feat in 2022 and finish in the top four again—or even higher?
It’s certainly a possibility, given that so many players will be back. Ivan Acuña, Jacques Boucheron, and Yeixon Ruíz, three of the league’s most dangerous hitters, will all return, as will the core of young French players, including Tom Dahan and Axel Amorros.
Angarita, who had a sensational .393 batting average last year, won’t be back, but expect his replacement (another foreign rookie) to be a solid addition.
As for the pitchers, Orozco (5-3, 2.74 ERA) is back, as are Coste and Lillian Amorros. The latter threw a no-hitter last year (and boasted a better team ERA of 1.59) but won’t join the team until the end of the school year in the U.S. (he attends Clarendon College in Texas). With another foreign rookie to round out his rotation, Savigny should be solid.
Note that this year, the club is celebrating its 40th anniversary!
Benjamin Witte
