We are still playing baseball in October. Last weekend, our U18 national team played a practice game together with some of our U15 talents in Bern.
The game was played over 9 innings and was set up to be in preparation of the international tournament in Athens October 28 – 30. Additionally, it was possible to give Troy Williams a look of the state of Swiss Junior Baseball. Troy was longtime pitching coach for the German national team and a scout for the New York Yankees. His inputs are valuable for the development of our young talents. Therefore, the coaches let 18 different players pitch for an inning each.
U18 Assistant Coach Martin Almstetter knows Troy from his time in Germany and that’s how this collaboration was initialized. After the qualifier for the U15 European Championships this past summer in Hunenberg, we will host the European B-Championships in U18 Baseball at the Heerenschurli national stadium in July 2017.
The U18 national team travels to Athens to play in the «Alimos Lions Invite the World U18 Baseball tournament» this upcoming weekend. The team will face three other U18 team from Europe (St. Petersburg North Stars, Alimos Lions/GRE and Team Norway). Thanks to the schedule with only one game a day, the coaches have the possibility to have individual talks with each player and set up a tailored offseason programme for everyone.
(Photos: Edi Flühmann)
