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RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany —A handful of blowouts helped separate the good teams from the not-so-good Thursday, the first day of DODDS’ everybody-gets-a-shot baseball tournament format.
In the first game of the day, Alconbury buried Bahrain 22-4. In its second game of pool play, Alconbury was on the receiving end of a disappointing 16-1 drubbing at the hands of Rota.
In big-school blowout action, Ramstein scored 18 while shutting out Vicenza while Patch took down SHAPE 14-3 to redeem itself after a too-close win over Wiesbaden.
Ansbach, the top seed in the smaller schools division, dropped its first game against AFNORTH, which – as the eighth seed – provided one of the few upsets of the day.
For the most part, though, the main contenders appeared safe at the close of the first day of pool play.
AFNORTH 7, Ansbach 5: Their seeding suggested an easy win for the Cougars.
But with identical records in the regular season both in (4-2) and out (0-4) of the division, there was reason to believe the Lions and Cougars would be well matched.
But after three scoreless innings, the possibility that it would be a close one was coming into shape. The case was made even stronger in the fourth when they traded three runs apiece.
Then the wheels came off for Ansbach as AFNORTH scored four more in the fifth and final inning. Ansbach could only muster a pair to fall in their opener.
“We weren’t sure what to expect,” Ansbach coach Tara Duplessie said afterward. “We knew that pretty much our pool is pretty evenly matched all around. So we were looking to have a tough game.”
She said they’d hoped for better pitching than they got.
“Our batting started to come on, so we were happy about that.”
AFNORTH coach Anthony Masi was pleased with his pitching staff. Sophomore Nathan Siemer pitched three scoreless innings on the strength of his knuckleball before both teams broke out in the fourth.
“It was the kind of baseball you want to see,” Masi said. “It’s the kind of baseball you hope for when you come down here.”
Ansbach overcame the loss to beat Hohenfels 10-5 later. AFNORTH, meanwhile, fell 8-3 to Sigonella in its second leg of pool play.
Rota 16, Alconbury 1: Despite playing 11 games in the regular season, Alconbury won just four – and just two in its division. In its own paltry four-game regular season – all in its division – Rota managed an impressive-on-paper .750 winning record.
With one of those three Admirals wins coming against Alconbury, it looked like the Dragons were up for a drubbing.
And that’s exactly how it played out.
Rota Freshman Zachary Heisler crushed a grand slam on his second at bat and finished with eight RBIs for the game.
Every one of the Admirals starters scored at least once, while Alconbury struggled after the first inning.
“We’ve heard some rumors about these teams,” Heisler said, referring to the fact that the Admirals have faced only a few of them. “I’m confident in our ability to win the championship this year. We’ve got a very good team.”
“They come in with confidence,” coach Tony Damore said. “We didn’t really know what to expect coming in and seeing these other teams.”
But they have a huge weapon in Heiser, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound freshman who Damore said is “ one of the best freshmen I’ve seen play out here,” and also their number-two pitcher.
“There’s plenty of guys capable of doing what he did today,” Damore said. “A lot of our big guys got walked.”
After decimating Bahrain in the first game, Alconbury “fell apart,” coach Jonathan Wood said. “We couldn’t pitch. We couldn’t hit. And we couldn’t generate runs. It was almost a meltdown. But it happens.”
“I’m disappointed we didn’t win, but I’m not disappointed in the boys,” Wood said. But he still hopes to advance. “Any team out here is beatable.”
Kaiserslautern 7, Naples 4: Brand new to D-I, Naples has a hard row to hoe after dropping its first two games of pool play. Kaiserslautern won its opening two games, the last of which dragged on until about a half hour after sunset Thursday against SHAPE.
Naples isn’t out of it altogether. In a pool of five, it’s possible the Wildcats could turn things around and find their way into playing Saturday. But that will take some doing, and some floundering by some of D-I’s best squads.
“We haven’t played Naples ever. We haven’t seen anything,” Kaiserslautern coach Chris Grogan said.
Naples scored in the first inning to go up 1-0, catching Kaiserslautern off guard. The Raiders went through their batting order once before they figured out Naples’ starting pitcher Mario Betancourt, Grogan said.
“This is the first look at the actual competition that we’re facing,” Naples assistant coach Ron Zimmermann said.
“If our bats don’t wake up a little bit more than where they’re at, then it could be a long tournament for us.”
millham.matthew@stripes.com